LIBRARY worker Su Paine has become a familiar face in the Morrisons store in Taunton during rainy lunchtimes.

Su is on a mission to walk 2,500 miles this year - that's 6.85 miles a day - to raise money for a charity that helped her uncover the dramatic story of the birth father she never met.

While she parks up on the outskirts of Taunton and takes the most roundabout walk into work and spends lunchtimes clocking up the miles, she drops into the local supermarket when it's too wet to be outside.

Su, 54, who was adopted as a baby, discovered her birth father's story with the assistance of forces charity SSAFA.

She was able to track her father, Cpl Nick White, through his birth certificate, as far as the Royal Sussex Regiment.

SSAFA volunteer Simon Yates then took up the case and used his military contacts and newspaper archives to reveal that her dad had been shot dead, aged 31, by the IRA for running a disco for Catholic and Protestant teenagers in Ardoyne, an initiative that had won him a peace award.

Su, who has since met members of her father's family, said: "I inherited his height and his eye colour, his passion for stock car racing and, as a former social worker, I have tremendous respect for what he was trying to do in Northern Ireland."

Referring to her walking challenge, which she monitors with a Fitbit, she said: "To fit the miles into my working day, I park on the outskirts of Taunton and take the most convoluted route I can find to get to work.

"I often walk round Longrun Meadow...and if it's raining, I sometimes go and walk up and down the aisles in Morrisons.

"I also work in a library so that often keeps me on my feet during the day."

Somerset County Gazette:

Su Paine.

Su added: "My commitment to the memory of my father, a courageous man who I will sadly never have the opportunity to meet, and my desire to raise much-needed funds for SSAFA to enable them to give somebody else the gift they have given me, keeps me walking every day."

You can support Su's fundraising journey by clicking here.