A group of in-line skaters are back at home after skating from Land's End to John O'Groats.

The team of six, who met while blading along Brighton's seafront, skated 865 miles in 17 days.

This week Paul Robinson, the eldest blader of the pack, was at home, nursing his sore feet.

Mr Robinson, 47, director of New Era Consultant Services in Brighton, said: "Blisters started appearing after the second day, then we got blisters on blisters.

"Eventually our skin completely hardened and we got muscle ache instead."

He has had to take a week off work to recover from the marathon, but the other team members, his son, Tom, 20, Nigel Wilson, a kitchen fitter, Dave Stansfield, a student, Sean Kelly, who is unemployed and their co-driver, chief cook and bottle-washer, Keith Jenkinson, were not so badly affected.

Mr Robinson, of Bigwood Avenue in Hove, said: "It is like blading from London to Brighton every day. At times we were clocked as doing 35 miles per hour.

"People were usually very supportive. As they passed in cars they would throw money and toot.

"The only problem we had was on a single track road in the Highlands when cars got stuck behind us for ten minutes. They were beeping their horns then, but not nicely."

The group had £30,000 pledged from individuals before setting off and were hoping to attract corporate sponsorship from local companies.

Their efforts were recorded on a website and they strapped a web camera to their support vehicle to transmit pictures.

Paul's inspiration for the skate came from the South Roadshow Skating Event he instigated on Hove Lawns, with British skating champion Robin Cousins, in 1996. It is now run in Eastbourne and has become the biggest skating event in Europe.

The cash raised is being donated to the Hunger Project, which aims to end famine.

He said: I went on a field trip with the Hunger Project to Ghana. I was amazed to see how very little money goes a long way."

The group's website can be found at www.bladerunneruk2000.org.uk