An inspirational woman overcame the odds to beat her disability and walk further than she had ever managed before.

Ana Crome thought it would take her two-and-a-half hours to walk the 0.3 miles from Marks and Spencer, on King Street, to the Lonsdale Cinema, Middlegate in Penrith.

However, the support of friends and family and generosity of the public meant she finished the walk in under two hours.

“It was incredible,” she said. “I smashed my time because I had all my friends there and there were strangers cheering me on.

“Near the end there were so many people cheering and shouting and putting money in the donation buckets.

“It was very very difficult, but I only had two sit-downs and two toilet stops.”

The 26-year-old, who lives in Penrith, suffers from arthrogryposis, a rare condition where, because her mum’s womb wasn’t big enough, her joints fixed together in whatever position they could.

She has limited movement in her arms and is in a wheelchair. She can only walk a couple of metres at a time with great difficulty.

However, Miss Crome set herself the walking challenge as she wanted to raise money to pay for a trip to Romania to meet her birth mother.

Angela Nicolae brought her daughter across to the UK for critical surgery, necessary for her disability, when she was 18 months old.

Mrs Nicolae then put her daughter up for adoption and flew home thinking she would never see her child again.

Miss Crome has been in contact with her mum, but has not met her since that day. She wants to fly out to meet her – and to thank her for the sacrifice she made all those years ago.

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Miss Crome has set herself a target of £600, but ideally wanted to raise £1,000.

The walk was a serious challenge for Miss Crome, who has had seven operations over her lifetime on each leg, arm and foot. She has also had two operations on her back and steel rods put in from the top to the bottom of her spine.

Generous Penrith residents dug deep to support her, putting in £5, £10 and £20 notes.

“I got about £145 in donations just from the public on Saturday,” Miss Crome said. “My total is now more than £1,200.

“I want to use that to pay for my carer – as without him I can’t go – and will try and save up for myself.”

She aims to fly to Romania next April – to give her enough time to learn more of the language, as her family over there does not speak English.