COVID meant well-known Black Country man Dave Sheppard had to swap a spectacular coast run in the Gower for a canal, but the result was the same – loads of money and a great deal of weary muscles.

The 61-year-old former Dudley councillor completed a 34-mile run from Bridgnorth to the Bonded Warehouse at Stourbridge and raised more than £1,500 for a Black County homeless charity.

Dave, the chairman of the Dudley branch of the Liberal Democrats, said that after 24 he was feeling brilliant having completed marathon distance. After 26 he was still great after seeing his family and friends wave him on.

But at 28 miles he ran out of energy and had to dig deep to stumble over the line.

He kept up his motivation with the thought that the money being raised was desperately needed by one-woman support service Leslie’s Care Packages, who deliver food and essentials to needy families across the Dudley area.

Indeed founder Vi Wood was at the finish line with a big bunch of flowers to say thank you to Dave for his stirling efforts.

Dave was a Lib Dem councillor in Stourbridge for ten years until 2004 but when he lost his seat he took up running and is a member of Stourbridge Running Club.

He and a pal were planning the Gower run but when Covid cancelled that Dave switched to the canal run.

It was a ‘challenging’ 7-hour effort but all in a great cause. “Vi helps desperate people. She is an absolute angel of the community.”

On top of running Dave is a director of the Sponmech Safety Systems engineering company in Halesowen.