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'Kindness of strangers made world record bid'

@PPAUK Lexi on her End2End challenge. She's in her wheelchair wearing a hat and blue gloves on a country lane going uphill. Green hedges either side@PPAUK
Lexi Chambers, from Exeter, covered 874 miles (1,407 km) in 45 days

An Army veteran and wheelchair athlete says the kindness of strangers made her world record challenge.

Lexi Chambers, from Exeter, covered 874 miles (1,407 km) in 45 days using a standard wheelchair and covering the distance of a marathon every day.

She travelled from John O'Groats to Land's End for the End2End Rugby Relay, which involved her visiting as many rugby grounds as she could.

Ms Chambers said people "gave us free accommodation and meals", others had "baked biscuits for us" and drivers were "incredibly kind" as she travelled the country.

@PPAUK Lexi and her support team standing next to the Land's End sign-post when she finished the challenge@PPAUK
Ms Chambers finished the End2End challenge in October at Land's End in Cornwall

Ms Chambers has fibromyalgia and complex regional pain syndrome - with the latter resulting in her leg being amputated three years ago.

She has since broken multiple world records, including for the fastest half and full marathons using a non-sport wheelchair.

Ms Chambers started her challenge in August and reached Land's End in October.

She said strangers "made the journey... when times are really, really tough, and there are a lot of times when you're doing a journey like that".

"It started on the first day from the minute that I left John O'Groats. I got about two minutes up the road and a car was beeping the horn at me, and I thought, 'Oh dear, have we done something wrong?'

"And then it just carried on and carried on. And eventually we cottoned on that people were just beeping and waving out their cars and and filming.

"It was just amazing."

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She said: "I will never take the easy route, no matter what.

"I actually ended up going over the Glencoe Mountains and over the Mendips, over Cumbrian hills, and then the highest hills in Devon and Cornwall.

"Nothing makes me want to give up... that question never even even arrives in my head at all when I'm doing a challenge, it never has."

@PPAUK Lexi on her End2End challenge. She's in her wheelchair wearing a hat and blue gloves on roundabout. A bike and cars and a van are around her. @PPAUK
She said people had supported her throughout her journey

When people heard about the challenge in the local media, she said they would "come out and stand at the side of the road and just clap or run, run to the support vehicle and hand money to help with the charities".

"Then, coming through Exeter, we see we had the children in Willand and Cullompton, it was like 400 children that lined the whole street...

"When you've got all these children that have done drawings for you and clapping and cheering, it is a memory I'll treasure forever."

She has raised thousands of pounds from the End2End challenge for the Aaron Lewis Foundation and The Exeter Chiefs Foundation.

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