Postman climbs the equivalent of Mount Everest by using steps in South Shields’ North Marine Park

Steven Law came up with the gruelling challenge to climb up and down Little Haven steps, in North Marine Park, South Shields, 579 times for charity.

It took the 59-year-old 23 hours and 45 minutes – which included a six hour sleep break – to compete the task which seen him take 118,116 individual steps, last week.

By completing the mission the grandfather-of-four raised over £2,500 for three charities - Cruse Crew, Speech After Stroke Club and the Chloe & Liam Together Forever Trust.

He said: “I had so much support doing this and so many customers from my round, plus friends and family, donated and came along on the day.

“The thing which spurred me on the most though was on the first day, I spotted a man in his 40s park up and come over.

“He joined me going up and down the steps and then he explained and said he was Chole’s dad, Mark Rutherford.

“I was just so inspired to keep going, no amount of pain I was going through was comparable to what he has to deal with.”

This is just one of many challenges Steven has completed in recent years for good causes.

In 2015 Steven completed to Coact To Coast Bike Ride, both ways, in a day.

In 2016 he managed 337 sets of the Little Haven steps - which is the equivalent of climbing from sea level to Everest’s base camp and back down.

Then in 2017 he did a non-stop 95 solo-walk from Gretna in Scotland to South Shields in 27 hours.

However, he’s not planning his next mission until he retires.

Steven added: “I want to cycle from Land’s End to John o’ Groats but I need to be training and doing around 100 miles a day on the bike, which is something I can’t do while working.

“I’ve no plans to retire just yet, as I love my round, but when I do that’s what I am going to be aiming for.”