Two friends completed a gruelling 50-mile walk in 24 hours in memory of a brave tot who lost her battle with a brain tumour.

Inspirational Ellese Mulligan-Green, four, died a week before Christmas 2008 in the Royal Blackburn Hospital.

At the time, her devastated parents Joanne, 40 and Phillip, 37, paid tribute to their "beautiful little angel" who had recently started primary school at St Mary’s in Oswaldtwistle.

And now friends Simon Shields and Dan Milton have completed a walk along the Leeds-Liverpool Canal to raise money for Derian House, the charity which helped Ellese and her family.

Simon is married to Rachel, who is Joanne Mulligan-Greene’s cousin - which prompted him to get involved in helping the charity.

Simon said: "We started to do some walking around Christmas to get fitter and we wanted to do something for charity.

"Due to the family link, we decided to do something for Derian House, as it is obviously close to my heart."

Simon, 39, of Griffin Close, Accrington is a businessman while Dan, 35, of Dentdale, Accrington, works as a teacher in Blackburn.

Simon said: "We set off at about 5am at a start point just beyond Shipley in West Yorkshire.

"It was an ideal day for it, with very cool weather, although the sun did come out in the afternoon.

"We were able to keep the pace which we had set ourselves and we travelled through Skipton, towards East Marston, then through Barnoldswick, Barrowford, Nelson, Colne and Burnley, before we finished at the Griffin’s Head pub in Accrington.

"We had already decided that would be our finish point, so we enjoyed a pint there. We had previously only done walks of around 35 miles, so this time we pushed on and did more."

The friends had previously held a fundraiser at the pub including karaoke and play your cards right.

In total, they have made around £2,000 for the Derian House.

Simon added: "Dan struggled a little bit from about the 35 mile mark onwards, but I was surprisingly okay. I didn’t get any blisters and I felt as right as rain.

"Derian House only gets about five weeks’ worth of government funding every year - and the rest is from volunteers. That's why it's important to try to support it any way we can." If you would like to sponsor Simon and Dan, visit www.justgiving.com/