Marathon trekker Alex gets a taste of Portrush hospitality

Alex Ellis-Roswell estimates it will take four years and more than 20 million steps to complete his mission as he raises money for the RLNI.

Alex arrived in Portrush on Tuesday and met with members of the Portrush Lifeboat crew.

The Chair of Lifeboat Fundraising, Sharman Finlay,appealed for donations on Facebook and was “so touched by local generosity.”

Morelli’s covered the cost of Alex’s stay at Blackrock House, and its owner, Nicola Neill agreed to fund the next two days of his stay.

Crew members hosted a dinner at the Ramore Wine Bar, and he was also treated to a trip on the Causeway Lass with The Salad Bowl donating snacks for his onward journey on Thursday.

Alex arrived in Portrush on the second anniversary of him starting out on his marathon trek to raise cash for RNLI lifeboat stations.

Alex is taking a clockwise route around both Britain and Ireland.

He began the Irish leg of his journey in Belfast on 13th July 2015.

In between, he has slept in church doorways, sheep sheds, bird hides and his tent. He’s now walking along the north coast of Northern Ireland back to Belfast. But he won’t be finished when he gets to Belfast.

Once he has finished walking the 2,500 mile coastline of Ireland, he will return to Scotland on the ferry to Cairnryan. From there he continues his journey up the west coast of Scotland and along the north coast before he starts making his way south down the east coast of Scotland and England.

He had set an initial fundraising target of £10,000, but he has already raised £22,900 for the RNLI to date through online donations and bucket collections.

From Kent, England, and Alex, 23, set out on his 16,000km circumnavigation in August 2014