RITCHIE Cridge has been taking it easy this week after completing a five-a-day challenge for a whole year.

Every day for 365 days he ran 5k in memory of his grandfather - and on Sunday he completed his final run in Taunton's Longrun Meadow.

Ritchie, 27, of Monkton Heathfield, has so far collected £5,690 sponsorship for St Margaret's Hospice, where his grandad, Derek Cridge was cared for ahead of his death from asbestosis in September 2014.

He said: "It was a bit emotional and overwhelming completing something I'd been doing for a whole year.

"It was physically and psychologically challenging.

"Overall I enjoyed it, but there were times when it wasn't very pleasant, such as running in the snow, wind and dark

"But I was absolutely thinking of my grandad all the time."

On July 3 last year, three days into the challenge, Ritchie's knees seized up so badly he was unable to go down stairs for a fortnight.

"I was hobbling round the 5k then, taking 50 minutes," he said. "Fortunately I didn't have any more injuries after that.

"I decided to do the runs because I'd never run far before. I'd done two 5ks in my life, but I walked part of the way both time.

"I wanted do do a challenge that really was a challenge. I always thought of my grandad because I just had to put up with 25 minutes a day struggling to breathe, while my grandad was struggling for 24 hours a day."

Ritchie, the membership manager at Somerset Chamber of Commerce, clocked a total of 1,825k - the equivalent of running from London to Rome

After taking a week off, Ritchie will lace up his trainers again next week, planning to run 10k twice a week and entering the Bridgwater Half Marathon in September, hopefully progressing to the London Marathon next April.