Lorna, 10, joins special club after Three Peaks triumph

Lorna Shepherd completed the 26-mile route over Whernside, Pen-y-ghent and Ingleborough in rain, high winds and hail – and raised more than 300 for the Candlelighters children's cancer charity.

Lorna, who lives at Linton Falls, near Grassington, and goes to nearby Threshfield School, decided to do the walk after her school friend Rebecca Alton was diagnosed with leukaemia and had to have a bone marrow transplant.

Rangers from the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority were so impressed with Lorna's fantastic achievement that they decided she should become an honorary friend of the Three Peaks.

Alan Hulme, ranger services manager, went along to the school to present her with a Three Peaks medal and certificate and to give her her honorary title.

He said: "Lorna is one of the youngest that we have heard about to complete the Three Peaks Challenge and we thought it was a real achievement that shouldn't go unrewarded. It's a real pleasure to welcome her as a Friend of the Three Peaks."

Lorna, who did the walk with her mother Emma and two family friends, said: "I think the medal's really good.

"It was a long day – we had to get up at 5.45am and we finished walking at 6.20pm and I fell asleep in the car on the way home."

School teacher Brettle Roberts said: "She organised it all herself, sending a letter to all the parents telling them about it and she set up a JustGiving webpage as well. I think it's an incredible achievement – we are very proud of her."

The medals and certificates are available online to anyone who has completed one, two or all three of the peaks and anyone becoming a Friend of the Three Peaks before August 21 can join the group's second anniversary walk up each peak.

The Friends of the Three Peaks group was launched last year and is the latest phase in a project to try to protect and conserve the area, which receives about 250,000 visitors a year and, in 1986, was judged to have the most severely eroded footpath network in the UK.