Well-known Tenby Round Tabler and local driving instructor Suen Andrews has just returned from the challenge of a lifetime as he completed a charity trek of the Great Wall of China.
Suen, who is also duty manager at Tenby's Heywood Mount Hotel, took part in the hiking challenge in aid of Macmillan Cancer Care, as he lost his mother Jennifer to cancer back in 2007.
Suen admitted that the toughest part of the trek, which took him along ancient and remote sections of the Great Wall, was the climb of a section called Heaven's Ladder.
"It was a sheer vertical climb and took around five-and-a-half hours, then at the base of Heaven's Ladder the final 300 steps were quite a slog too and took me personally around an hour and 20 minutes," explained Suen, who left for China from Gatwick on April 24.
He admits that it was quite an eye-opener seeing first-hand the poverty of one of the villages he and his party of 53 fund-raisers visited.
"We visited a school there which was celebrating the opening of a new classroom, and because we brought gifts to them ranging from balloons and bandanas to a Rooney Man Utd shirt that I got printed, we were greeted like rock stars!" he said.
Everyone on the trip was raising money for the Macmillan charity cause.
"Ages ranged from three semi-professional female hockey players in their early 20s to two ladies in their late 60s.
"Some of the party were cancer survivors, while I was the only one who had lost a parent to cancer, but we were all there for the same reason, and altogether raised £110,000 as a group," continued Suen, who gave his sincere thanks to a number of local businesses, including - Richard Graham, of Big Brums; Lesley, of Tenby House Hotel; Tenby Round Table; Heywood Mount Hotel; Jenny and the Tenby Soroptimists; Rossiters Funeral Directors.
"I'd also like to thank the people of Kilgetty who sponsored and supported me so well and a sincere thanks to anyone who has sponsored me in general, Pauline for the walking poles, without which I wouldn't have got across, Carol Adams, Radio Pembrokeshire, Andy at the Tenby Observer, and finally a special thanks to my brother, Adrian Andrews, for handling the fund-raising," added Suen.