A Cockermouth woman returned home this week after completing one of the world’s toughest races – the Marathon des Sables.

The event involves doing six marathons in seven days in the Sahara, while carrying all your kit and food.

Anne Frankland competed against more than 1,200 people of 52 different nationalities. She finished 411th and in the first 50 women.

Anne said: “It was a bit of a bonkers event. There was a whole range of people there, from elite runners to walkers and even a Japanese bloke who did the whole thing in a woolly cow outfit.

“It was very inclusive and the seven people I shared a tent with became family for the week, but I would never ever do it again.”

She suffered blisters on most of her toes and withstood temperatures of 45C during the day and desert winds during the night.

The toughest day was the one which involved completing two marathons back to back.

She said: “It was a long day. The first 10 miles were runnable then it was sand dunes and really soft slippy sand which was about a foot deep and you could only trudge through.”

Anne, 43, of Kirkgate, is a freelance mapping and information management consultant and had spent the previous six months training for the event.

She added: “I’m tired now and feeling a bit chesty from all the sand but glad to be home.”

She has raised more than £1,000 for two charities: Mind, the mental health charity, and Map Action, a humanitarian mapping charity which she has volunteered with for the past 12 years.