A cancer survivor who took part in a brewery fundraising 12 mile walk across various breweries in Teddington, Kingston and Twickenham with 11 friends to raise money for several charities on 17 October, has raised over £6,500.

Pete Bell was diagnosed with bowel cancer in April and consequently had surgery and chemotherapy.

He has since been raising money for the organisations that treated him.

In an exclusive interview with Nub News, Bell said: "When I thought I might win my fight against cancer - you see the staff who have such tough jobs working so hard, and very sick people around me with long and horrible fights with cancer - my mind turned to how I could help when I was well enough.

"So, I started my main fundraising page and planned a couple of other ways to raise money, the first of which was our walk on 17 October.

"During the tough times, particularly Chemotherapy, it's a massive motivation to know your friends and family are willing you on - in this case giving their money to help me, people like me and the many hard-working professionals giving their all every day of the year, to treat cancer.

"When I felt like I wanted to give up - e.g. not take the tablets which make you feel ill, or not have an infusion which makes your veins burn for a fortnight - knowing that there's a community of people behind you who've committed their money to support what you're doing, really powered me through to get on with it."

Bell explained that he chose to split the funds between Kingston Hospital, which removed his tumour, Royal Marsden where he had chemo, Bowel Cancer UK and Cancer Research.

As part of his brewery walk, the group walked a 12 mile route, starting at Twickenham Brewery in Mereway Road, to Thames Ditton Brewers at the Gin shop on the High Street, followed by Big Smoke Brewery represented by its original brewing site in Maple Road Surbiton, and Park Brewery in Hampden Road Norbiton, with the finish line being at Jawbone Brewery in Strawberry Vale Twickenham.

"Being lads who love local craft beer, we wanted to celebrate how lucky we are to have great local breweries, some of whom are struggling to continue at the moment," Bell said.

He added: "Three local businesses were particularly generous - Twickenham Brewery, Thames Ditton Brewers and Jawbone Brewery, both supporting on the day and contributing.

"We also had dog walkers in Bushy Park who wanted to spontaneously donate, a very kind driver queuing at roadworks in Kingston who passed a fiver out of their window, and so many people we passed along the 12 miles wished us well for a good cause."

Bell and his friends raised nearly £2k from the walk itself and the local man has raised over £6,500 on his existing fundraising page.

Donations can be made to Bell's fundraising page here.

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