A WOMAN has spoken of her pride and love for her daughter after conquering the Coniston to Barrow walk last week.

Claire Grove took on the 21-mile challenge last Saturday to raise money to support those who share her daughter's rare syndrome.

Ashleigh Grove has the rare Cri-du-Chat syndrome, which affects one in 50,000 babies.

Mrs Grove, 40, said: “It was great, absolutely fantastic.

“The best part was the finishing line. Ashleigh was there to greet me with my medal when I arrived.

“She came running down to meet me and that was just the best.”

The shop assistant from Ormsgill thanked her daughter for giving her the motivation to complete the walk.

She said: “To have her there was brilliant.

“Knowing she was there waiting was what gave me the inspiration to get through.

“One of my team members phoned when I was on Abbey Road to say Ashleigh was there waiting and I knew I needed to get there for my daughter to see her cheering and clapping when I finished.”

With her team, Wild Cats, the group of nine have raised over £1,000 so far for the Cri-du-Chat Syndrome Support Group.

Mrs Grove said: “We're over the moon with it.

“I think it's massively important to raise money for this charity because it's such a rare syndrome and we need to try and raise awareness of it.

“Coincidentally it was awareness week for it last week so to end it doing the Coniston to Barrow was the icing on the cake really.”

The Evening Mail featured a story on Ashleigh back in 2004, when she completed her own sponsored walk around Ormsgill.

Mrs Grove already has plans to return to the C2B route in 2018, saying: “Doing the walk was amazing, I really enjoyed it.

“We'll be back next year. There's no two ways about it.”