A MULTIPLE sclerosis sufferer has set off on a fundraising crusade as a way of repaying a society that helped her.

Joyce Ougham, of Saunderton Hostel, Saunderton, is having the deposit on her new accommodation paid for by the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society.

Mrs Ougham had already planned to go on a sponsored walk for the society and was so grateful for the deposit that she is planning more fundraising.

She said: "It was so great to hear what they were going to do for me. I just want to help anybody who wants me to help them out. That's my aim."

Mrs Ougham has to leave the hostel after Wycombe District Council concluded that it had no duty to accommodate her following her homelessness application.

Mrs Ougham raised more than £1,000 for the MS Society on July 7, by walking from the railway station at Saunderton, with fiance Philip Gatehouse, to Aylesbury and back a distance of about 26 miles.

She called in to Aylesbury Police Station to prove she had reached the town before returning to Saunderton in the early hours of Sunday.

She said: "When I got home, I was staggering all over the place. It took about 14 hours and I had to sleep for a long time when I got back."

A district council spokesman said: "Following the conclusion of Mrs Ougham's homelessness application, Wycombe District Council has no further duty to accommodate Mrs Ougham. Therefore, the council has applied to the court for a possession order."