AGE is just a number for a 73-year-old Hereford grandfather who is taking on a month's worth of walking for a local charity.

Peter Ormsby is undertaking a 720km pilgrimage route across Northern Spain in a bid to raise funds for Hereford’s Yeleni Therapy and Support Centre.

Earlier this week Peter set off from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port – in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques region of South-Western France – for Santiago de Compostela.

"It has been a pilgrimage route for years and I've wanted to do for a long time," he said.

"I have done other fundraising events such as climbing Ben Nevis but this one is going to take at least 30 days."

Peter will be able to stay overnight in refuges – which are located every 15km into the journey.

"In the summer there are about 100,000 people that do it so it can get very busy. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm 73 and still have a bucket list and this is on there," he added.

He is raising funds for the Yeleni Therapy and Support Centre, based on Blackfriars Street, which offers nine free therapy treatments for people with cancer.

"The work that they do is very important," Peter said. "Especially as there is a shortage of grants now which means more needs to be done to raise money."

Peter said that it costs £350 per person for the centre to provide the treatments, but funds are also needed to pay the therapists and fund their training.

"The thing is that I enjoy walking, so if I can raise money at the same time it suits me," he said.

"For training, I have been walking around the Black Mountains and I've also done a cliff walk in Devon.

“The terrain will be very up and down and it'll be raining a quarter of the time because it's their spring and it's a very green area. I'll be going up a couple of thousand metres at some points and about a quarter of the journey will be on the road."

To donate to Peter's fundraising efforts visit localgiving.com/camino

For more information on the Yeleni Therapy and Support Centre, visit yelenisupport.co.uk/index.html