A 92-year-old great grandmother from Salisbury has raised more than £5,000 to help visually impaired people around the world after completing a 100 mile walking challenge.

Barbara Hare, who lives in Crane Bridge Road, was inspired to help the charity Sightsavers after she recently underwent two cataract operations which stopped her going blind.

Realising how devastating the loss of her eyesight would have been, she sent a cheque to Sightsavers, which helps visually impaired people worldwide.

After receiving a grateful response from the charity, she decided to do a sponsored walk - setting herself a target of 100 miles around Elizabeth Gardens in 50 days.

She beat all her targets, finishing ten days ahead of schedule and bringing in more than two and a half times the amount originally £2,000 fundraising target set.

Members of her family joined her for the last mile and brought a bottle of champagne along to toast her success as she reached the finishing line in the riverside park.

Barbara said: “It was a great relief that I managed to do the 100 miles and raise money for such a wonderful charity. But it will be nice not to have the daily commitment to the sponsored walk. I have never done anything like this before.”

Barbara, who describes herself as “92 years young”, was born in what was then Southern Rhodesia and is now Zimbabwe, but has lived in the Salisbury area for most of her life. She has three children, seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild with another due to be born this year.

Sightsavers is dedicated to a world where nobody is blind from avoidable causes and operates in 30 countries around the globe with its British offices in Chippenham.

Donations can still be made online to Barbara’s Justgiving page.

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