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Veterans and pub landlord walk for Poppy Appeal

BBC A picture of three people standing in front of a statue. They are all wearing blue shirts and holding walking poles. They are wearing matching blue hoodies.BBC
Landlord Dave Cooper and veterans Leighton Lucas and Dermot Rogers are walking 300 miles

Two veterans and a pub landlord have set out on a 300-mile walk to raise money for the Poppy Appeal.

Landlord Dave Cooper, army veteran Leighton Lucas and former navy serviceman Dermot Rogers set off on their journey on Wednesday morning.

They plan to walk over Dartmoor and Exmoor on the Two Moors Way (30 April – 6 May), along the Tamar Valley on the Tamara Way (8 – 14 May) and from Falmouth back to Ivybridge, via the South West Coast Path (17 – 23 May).

One of the group is insulin dependent while between them they have been through three heart attacks and two open heart surgeries.

But that has not stopped them from embarking on the challenge, which they dreamed up in Mr Cooper's pub, The Exchange in Ivybridge.

A group of people gathered smiling towards a camera. There is a group of about 30 people and a dog in the picture.
A large crowd turned up to wave the group off on their walk

Mr Rogers said: "It was Dave who said to me after a couple of pints one evening, 'I'm thinking of doing something really big, the South West Coast Path'."

"I explained to him that it was 630 miles long and that if we could do it in a month he'd be some kind of Olympic athlete!"

'Eccentric, crazy, ambitious'

Mr Cooper, said: "Eccentric, crazy, ambitious - I didn't know what I was really letting myself in for.

"Coming from the Midlands, we don't have the undulations that there is down here in Devon."

He added: "As Dermot said, we had a couple of beers - and thought it would just be a great idea."

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