A LUDLOW mum has raised more than £2,000 and counting for the hospice that helped her daughter Sam, who died after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of lung cancer.

It was a way for Dianne Lyle to pay tribute to her daughter Sam Holland, who died a year ago in St Margaret’s Hospice in Taunton.

An athlete and seemingly healthy woman, Sam died just months after receiving her shock diagnosis.

Diane Lyle, who is also a Ludlow town councillor, decided to walk Offa’s Dyke on the anniversary of her daughter’s death.

Ms Lyle always knew the walk would be a huge challenge. She had never done anything like that before and she was the first to admit her map-reading skills were ‘newly acquired’.

The lack of any signage at the start of a day’s walk from Hay Bluff threw her but she saw there was a road she could take to Llantony Priory and she walked that, with strong winds and hail driving into her face for the first hour. She arrived at Llantony in sunshine and found an alternative route via the Beacon Way which linked up to the route from Offa’s Dyke she should have taken to Longtown; but at an unmarked junction she took the wrong turning.

“I ended up at a dead-end in someone’s drive,” Ms Lyle said. “I had absolutely no idea where I was. My younger daughter, Jen, had signed me up to an App where she could track me but the property was new and had no postcode. There was no way of rescuing me so I sat on the garden wall and waited for the owners to return with a workshop to shelter in if needs be. The owners did return and took me to my accommodation.”

On the final day Ms Lyle was joined by her younger daughter, Jen, and they opted to follow the Wye Valley Greenway from Tintern to Chepstow instead of trying to find and follow the Offa’s Dyke Path.