A FIREFIGHTER finished off a gruelling fundraising challenge by getting down on one knee and proposing to his girlfriend.

Firefighter Joey Hawke, who started at Padiham Fire Station this week, took part in a 190-mile walk in full firefighting kit.

It took him four days, 13 hours and 55 minutes ­— all in support of The Royal Navy and Royal Marine Charity and The Fire Fighters Charity.

He trekked with four friends from St Bees, Cumbria to Robin Hood’s Bay, Yorkshire and, despite suffering with an agonising and rapidly spreading leg infection due to a blister, got down on one knee and proposed at the end to Emily Harrison.

He said: “We were supposed to be going to Florida last year but obviously Covid stopped that. Then we were supposed to go earlier this year and then that got cancelled and I’d had it planned to propose over there.

“I had the idea of doing it after the walk about five or six weeks before the event, I wanted to do it somewhere she’d least expect it.”

As Joey approached the finish and laid eyes on his fiancée to be, friends unravelled a large banner in front of her reading ‘Will You Marry Me?’ When Emily turned around, Joey was down on one knee and it was a resounding ‘yes’.

“Seeing her face light up made the whole thing worth it,” he added. “To be honest, knowing that was coming pulled me through that last day of the challenge. We were all so tired.

“I had my leg checked out in hospital and ended up having to have two weeks off work, but I’m all good now.”

Joey, from Rossendale, was inspired to take on the challenge last month after seeing the impact Covid-19 had had on day-to-day fundraising.

He said: “We felt it was important as charity car washes and things like that have taken a bit of a backseat because of the pandemic.

“One of the lads I know left the fire service and is now in the Royal Navy, so that’s where the idea to raise funds for RNRMC came from.”

Joey’s fundraiser is expected to raise more than £4,000.