CLOCKING up the miles walking around and visiting businesses in Tavistock is all in a day’s work for Business Improvement District (BID) manager Janna Sanders but 26 miles across Dartmoor’s tough terrain is another kettle of fish entirely...

That was Janna’s mission last Saturday as she embarked on Trek26 Dartmoor and she completed it admirably in ten hours and 56 minutes.

Driven by the memory of her beloved mother Jenny, who died last year during lockdown from dementia, Janna is hoping to raise as much money as she can for the Alzheimer’s Society.

And as her body recovers from the challenge, Janna is sure her mum would be proud.

‘Mum was an avid Dartmoor walker, she used to walk 14 miles in a week with a group called The Game Birds,’ said Janna.

‘As a kid she used to drag me out left, right and centre to go for a walk. I used to say “Here we go again” and didn’t enjoy it very much.

‘She loved the moor and walking was her passion. It’s too late for me and mum to go walking together now but I think she would be proud of what I have done and this trek has certainly ignited my interest.’

Janna said she was good for nothing the day after the walk but the challenge had been helped by walking alongside her friend Gemma Perkins from Lewdown, whose father also passed away last year from dementia, and a stellar pair of running shoes from Tavistock’s Run Venture.

‘I knew once my feet started to hurt it would be Game Over,’ she added. ‘So instead of my walking boots I invested in a pair of running shoes and wow, no blisters at all, my feet felt fantastic at the end.’

Janna, who is mum to seven and six-year-old daughters, said she even managed a bit of a walking sprint ahead of the finish, or maybe that was the adrenaline.

‘I was really chuffed I did it,’ she said. ‘I did nine training walks of ten miles which is not really that much. Since the school holidays it has been hard to get the training in with my daughters at home.

‘I really didn’t have any idea how it would go and we even picked up a bit of pace at the end which is a bit random.’