Two deaf men walked from John O’Groats to Land’s End raising more than £30,000 for charity.

Mark Hodgson and Daniel Dorney claim to be the first deaf men to complete the walk. Their feat aimed to raise awareness of mental health issues facing the deaf community.

The journey started on June 5 from John O’Groats and has seen the men walk a gruelling 1,200 miles on foot over two months overcoming extreme weather – from torrential rain to some of the hottest days recorded in the UK.

Assisted by support driver and friend Chris Potts, the Nottingham and York locals also undertook the walk to raise money in aid of two deaf organisations: SignHealth and Deaf4Deaf.

Daniel said: “We are proud to be the first deaf men to complete this walk. I wanted to do this because of the physical and mental challenge it would require.

"Mental Health is an issue needed to be taken more seriously particularly within the deaf community and I know this from experiencing it first-hand."

Since starting their journey local mayors, MPs and many communities have shown support, applauding and embracing them as they go.

Members of the deaf community and the wider general public have also joined them on stretches of their walk, seeing an extremely engaged community grow on social media of over 6,000 people follow their journey and helping treble their fundraising target of £10,000 to over £30,000.

Mark said: “The process of receiving professional help is lengthy and the waiting times for approvals means deaf people’s problems worsen which makes recovery harder and longer.

"Some deaf people struggle accessing mainstream hearing services using interpreters, preferring to see specialised deaf counsellors that uses BSL. We strongly believe it is time for change.”

Daniel, Mark and Chris raised funds for deaf mental health organisations Deaf4Deaf and SignHealth who are dedicated to making sure deaf people get the same access to healthcare as hearing people.