A life-long Battersea resident walked for nine hours through the night in aid of a breast cancer charity. 

Vanessa Pugh-Wood, 49, took part in this year’s London Moonwalk, a walked marathon through the capital beginning after 10pm. 

Organised by Walk the Walk, the 26.2 mile challenge attracted more than 15,000 women on May 13, all dressed in fancy bras. 

Vanessa said: “I wanted a challenge because I turn 50 next month.

“When I saw it advertised all I knew was that it was starting in Clapham Common.”

After initial hesitance about the enormity of the task, she got a group of women together and they began building up to the event- two to three miles at first and then 20 miles two weeks before the event. 

Vanessa said: “It doesn’t quite prepare you for it. 

“The walk is through the night so you’re walking when you should be sleeping.”

She found the first few miles easy but hit a hurdle at about 22 miles. Vanessa said: “I thought ‘I can’t do this anymore’. 

“But everyone is cheering you on so I took a ten minute break and kept going.”

After the “exhausting” marathon, which took around nine hours to walk, Vanessa said she would never do it again. But once recovered, she has not ruled it out. 

Vanessa and her friends raised £2,500 towards the fight against breast cancer. 

She said: “It was amazing to be part of something so important. Breast cancer effects so many lives- it’s such a great cause.”

Participants walked past such sights as The Peace Pagoda, Big Ben, The Houses of Parliament, The London Eye, The Tate Modern, Buckingham Palace and The Mall.