A DEDICATED Dundonald daughter says hugging her mum at the finish line of an 180 mile charity run was the “icing on the cake” after a gruelling five days.

Katie Hall completed her on-foot journey from Inverness to Glasgow last Wednesday after taking on miles of mixed terrain across Scotland’s most breathtaking routes to raise thousands for Ayrshire Cancer Support.

Starting on the Great Glen Way, she headed off in the direction of the West Highland Way, before sprinting along the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond to finally finish in Milngavie at the start point of the famous highland trek.

Overall she has taken on an incline of 20,000ft - the same as climbing Ben Nevis six times - and has ran across rocks, hills, roads to get to the final goal, with her heels left “shredded” towards the end.

Katie told the Advertiser: “It was one of the best weeks of my life. It was obviously tough I knew it was going to be, but that feeling of being out on your own, tackling problems and having to do everything for yourself was great.

“I don’t feel like I’ve suffered enough. I feel like I’ve had too much fun. “When I got back home I was tempted to pitch the tent in the back garden. It was so weird not doing the challenge anymore.”

Friends, family and thousands of others backed “inspirational” Katie all the way as they helped her raise over £7k for Ayrshire Cancer Support.

The personal trainer had set out to do the challenge to raise funds for the charity after they supported her mum during cancer treatment by getting her to and from appointments at the Beatson in Glasgow.

Along the way Katie was joined by friends for moral support, with her mum meeting her in Tyndrum as she edged closer to the finish line. “The closer I got to Glasgow the more people came out to meet me. One of my friends met me on the loch side section of Loch Lomond. I had been running for 12 plus hours it was really dark, I was scrambling over rocks and hitting mental fatigue, I had just a head torch and I was really cold.

“Graham [her boyfriend] met us two miles up the trail and got me some food. He came up in the campervan and I was offered to go sleep there but I wanted to stay true to the challenge so I slept in my tent.”

“I feel completely motivated to just get back out and do more.

“It started out as a solo adventure but I didn’t expect it to be as big as it was. A group of friends joined us for the final charge. I ran straight into mammy’s arms, it was amazing.”