"BEYOND our wildest dreams" - a Bridgwater couple's verdict after their son completed a fundraising 3,091-mile walk across America in memory of his wife.

John and Shirley Goddard spoke this week after 48-year-old Phil finished the trek, which raised more than £40,000 for the Association for International Cancer Research, in Venice Beach, Los Angeles, last Sunday (May 6).

The widower walked an estimated 7.4 million steps as a tribute to wife Jayne Comins, who died of cancer last year, and fittingly completed his challenge on the day which would have been their 18th wedding anniversary.

"It is an enormous relief that he has finished, although we never doubted he would be able to do it, it's beyond our wildest dreams how much money he has raised," mum Shirley said.

"It was something that he had wanted to do for a long time, even before he had lost his wife.

"It has really put him back on the road to recovery as he has had a lot of thinking time.

"He has lost a lot of weight but my daughter assures me that he still looks very healthy."

Phil had to walk through blizzards, floods, and deserts during his trek and was even involved in an accident with a lorry that hit his arm in Kentucky.

But despite these hardships he managed to complete the journey he started in the autumn last year.

And two people glad to have him back are his two Bridgwater parents.

"It won't be very long until he is back, probably in June he will be back here," Shirley said.

"I am very pleased for the society he has raised money for because I gather they are quite a small charity.

"His father John is just as proud as well, I think at first he had his doubts.

"But Phil has well and truly done it now - we are both very, very proud, both of us."