WHEN asked, the Revd Mike Haslam, a non-stipendiary minister in the Alfred Jewel Benefice in Somerset, and chaplain to a local secondary school, readily admits his latest fund-raising challenge is fairly extreme.

"I wanted to do something that was a bit mad. Or perhaps very mad," he said last week, one day into a 16-day 630-mile run along the South West Coastal Path from Minehead to Poole.

"It's certainly the biggest challenge I've ever attempted: completing the whole length involves climbing a total of 35,000 metres, with an average daily distance of 45 miles," he said. Mr Haslam is running to raise money for Chris- tian Aid, and had already amassed £1600 before he began the run last week.

He said: "People have been incredibly generous - family, friends, Christian Aid supporters. I'm missing my wife and kids a lot, but I'm also aware that I'm doing this for families who are permanently separated."

As he spoke to the Church Times, Mr Haslam was walking down the Tamar estuary. He expected to have to walk rather than run at times, and that he might not finish the route.

"Only four people have ever tried to do the South West coastal path at speed, and one had to pull out at Plymouth."

www.justgiving.com/mike-haslam