A WINYATES Green marathon man has returned from China having become the first Briton to complete the gruelling Foulees de la Soie race.

Dr Doug Richards, 52, of Flaxley Close, tackled roads, mountains and deserts on his quest to find the finish line and hopes his efforts will raise £2,000 for the Cancer Research Campaign.

The father-of-two joined 92 others and came in 61st after finishing in spectacular style by running on the Great Wall of China itself.

Dr Richards, a research scientist at Birmingham University, said: "It was very, very tough but the memories will stay with me forever. We ran for 11 days out of 12 and no two stages were the same."

He also said temperatures were above 40 degrees in the Gobi Desert and the group was running at more than 11,000 feet above sea level in Tibet.

"The people were very friendly and gave us a wonderful welcome wherever we went, although some of them looked rather puzzled as to why we would want to visit their country to run," he added.

The Redditch runner has now completed more than 15 marathons, including the 150-mile Marathon des Sables in the Sahara Desert and a multi-staged race called the Silken Footsteps, based around the East-West trade route which linked the ancient Chinese Empire with the Western world.