A quadruple heart bypass patient who could barely manage a few steps during recovery is challenging himself to walk 100 miles alongside his wife.

Adam Hale, from Penryn, was told he wouldn’t live longer than two weeks if he didn't have surgery within 24 hours,

The 49 year-old was advised to start walking as part of his recovery and is now challenging himself to the Kennet and Avon Canal Walk.

Adam, who will undertake the walk with wife Kate O'Leary, aged 43, said: “I started cardio rehab run by the British Heart Foundation, who encouraged me to start walking to improve my heart health.

"At first, I couldn’t manage much, but gradually I have built this up to recently completing a 12 and a half mile walk and now average five to seven miles on each walk I go on."

“Walking has given me the motivation to not only take advantage of the life I still have, thanks to all the people involved but to also try and improve my life in the future.

"I have lost several members of my family to heart disease and heart related illness, so I have always supported the British Heart Foundation in their essential research.”

Adam has set a fundraising goal of £1,000 to support British Heart Foundation's life-saving research and anyone wishing to help can do so by visiting www.justgiving.com/fundraising/adamandkate .

He added: “The route which will take us from Reading to Bristol, over 100 miles in just five days, as a way of saying thank you to all the people involved in repairing my heart and keeping me alive."

Joy Petley, Fundraising Manager for Devon and Cornwall at the BHF, added: “Heart disease is an urgent problem. Over a quarter of all deaths in the UK are a result of or are lost to heart and circulatory disease. All the money raised from Adam’s challenge will help us fund vital research that will help us to better understand how to prevent heart disease.”

Heart and circulatory disease affects around 7 million people in the UK and is responsible for around 155,000 deaths each year.

The BHF is the leading independent funder of heart research and is committed to funding £500m of new research over the next five years to help revolutionise the prevention and treatment of heart conditions.

There are currently 135 research projects taking place in the South West to help fight disease.