John Mathias, of Cold Blow, and Keith Thomas, of Redstone Road, Narberth, who both admit to having had their 60th birthdays, recently completed a walk around the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path in 14 days.

Speaking after taking a well earned breather outside the New Inn at Amroth, John said "It has been our ambition for sometime to walk around the Path and after celebrating a special birthday at the end of August, we decided to give it a go."

The two friends wanted local charities to benefit from their endeavours and chose the Pembrokeshire Deaf Children's Society and Ysgol Feithrin, Arberth.

Starting at St. Dogmaels, the pair walked the 186 miles to the New Inn, Amroth, the equivalent of the distance between Narberth and Liverpool.

Keith said that they had both discovered things about their own county, which they had not known previously.

He added: "We had a superb time over the 14 days and met some very interesting people from all over the world. In addition we were still on speaking terms when we arrived at the end of the walk in Amroth to sign the book at the New Inn."

On Saturdays the two men are arch rivals with one supporting Whitland Rugby Club and the other Narberth Rugby Club. Keith is currently the Whitland treasurer, whilst John a former club captain at Narberth, has also served as chairman and treasurer of the club. They ended their walk with John wearing the Narberth kit and Keith the Whitland kit. They were joined on two days by Steve Allen, of the Pembrokeshire Deaf Children's Society, the husband of the society chairperson.

John paid tribute to the help and assistance that they had both received from family and friends and said that it would not have been possible to complete the walk without such help.

In conclusion, Keith said: "We are most grateful for the generous sponsorship that we have received to date and a sum of £700 has already been raised. The aim is to reach a four figure target. We would also like to thank the committee of the Narberth club, for giving permission for us to have a bucket collection at the Lewis Lloyd ground next Saturday, in the Division One match of the day between Narberth and Whitland."