THE cancellation of this year's Maggie's MegaHike hasn't deterred Mary and Miles Tuely - they are going to tackle the 26-mile charity walk anyway.

Mr and Mrs Tuely, who own a smallholding in Wootton, near Woodstock, decided to take part in the third Oxford MegaHike after Mrs Tuely, 59, was treated for breast cancer in 2005.

The event - organised to raise money for a £3m Maggie's Cancer Centre at the Churchill Hospital, in Headington - was due to take place over the Bank Holiday weekend of May 24-25.

But last week it was cancelled because of a lack of participants.

The MegaHike sees walkers pick one of three routes to be completed within 24 hours: Wallingford to Chilton (15 miles), to Wantage (26 miles) and 50 miles to Marlborough.

Mr and Mrs Tuely signed up for the 26-mile stretch.

In 2006 and 2007, the walk attracted more than 600 people and raised a total of £450,000. This year, only 105 people signed-up - fewer than half the 300 needed to break even.

Mr Tuely said: "We have already raised £4,000 in sponsorship and hope this will rise to £5,000.

"The Maggie's charity invited us to take part in one of their other events instead, but they are too far away and we didn't want to have to return all our great sponsorship to people either, so we thought let's just do it anyway.

"We still want to do our bit for cancer sufferers, and we're hoping some other peope will feel the same and join us."

Sharon Campbell-Martin, MegaHike event manager, said the charity was very disappointed to have to cancel.

She added: "Maggie's would like to thank the Tuelys for deciding to go ahead and complete the 26 miles for Maggie's and for their tremendous fundraising efforts. Good luck to them on the day."

To contact Mr and Mrs Tuely, send an email to tuely@tiscali.co.uk People can also contact the Tuelys via Debbie Waite on 01865 425428 .