Martin Speariett is slim and seems in pretty good shape for a man of 56.

Perhaps it’s partly down to his job with Gates Tyres on the Kingstown Industrial Estate in Carlisle, and the demanding work of fitting tyres to lorries. “I’ve always been in the tyres game,” he says.

But Martin also does a lot of walking. Some of it is barefoot, over embers more than five and a half times hotter than boiling water.

Yet he never gets burnt or experiences any pain. All he feels is exhilaration.

The firewalker is now also firewalking instructor. He estimates he has done about 100 firewalks – and he makes it sound like a walk in the park. He’s also involved in running events and showing others how to do it.

Martin is originally from Preston and moved to Wigton after a divorce, for a fresh start in a new place.

“I used to come up here for training sessions and I liked the area, so I thought: ‘This is the time to move’.”

Of course many people discover the walking opportunities that Cumbria offers when they come here. But they tend to do their walking with hiking boots on and thick socks.

It was here, 14 years ago, that Martin discovered his very different kind of walking.

His partner Susan Ramsay is friends with a couple called Scott and Diane Bell, who were setting up their own firewalking company, UK Firewalk. They were invited to the launch party – which offered opportunities to try it.

“I’d seen it on TV once and was intrigued by it,” he relates. “So I was determined to try it. After I did it Susan did it.”

Martin was immediately hooked. “It was quite emotional, it was an uplifting experience. When I came off it I cried.”

They weren’t tears of pain but tears of joy. He points out: “The feeling you get is hard to explain, but a lot of people talk of a spiritual uplift, or a spiritual connection.”

UK Firewalk grew quickly and Scott and Diane were able to turn it into a full-time job. “I used to go and help with their firewalks, and each time I went I got to do a firewalk myself. That suited me down to the ground.”

Scott broke two Guinness world records for firewalking, one of them in Carlisle. In January 2006 he set the record for greatest firewalking distance of 250 feet (76 metres). “That was on the site that used to be Belah School.”

Then in November that same year he broke his own record, with a firewalk of 328 feet (100 metres), this time in China.

After helping Scott and Diane over the years, Martin became a fully qualified instructor and set up his own organisation, Northern Firewalks. So how on earth does it work? Part of it is simply mind over matter. If you think about it in the right way, and reckon you can do it, then you probably can.

“The one thing that stops us doing most things in life is fear,” he explains.

“If you can make people feel comfortable about doing something, then that really alleviates a lot of fear.

“And if you get rid of fear, the possibilities for tackling anything else are there.”

For this reason, some of those who want to try it are facing challenges in their personal lives. If they can tackle this challenge it encourages them to feel they can tackle others.

“If you can instil a positive feeling about being able to walk on fire, then you can instil a positivity to try to overcome most things.”

However it’s not just all in the mind. There’s a science bit.

The embers that firewalkers tread are created from burning wood, which doesn’t conduct heat in the same way that metal does.

If metal is red-hot the heat transfer is almost immediate, and you would stick to it if you touched it.

But with wood it is slower. If you stood still on it you would burn, but if you’re walking briskly your contact with it is too short for that to happen.

Martin is also a qualified first aider and has a first aid kit and 10 buckets ofwater at all his sessions. But he has never needed them, nor witnessed a single injury.

Sessions begin with a 45-minute briefing session to ensure that would-be firewalkers are in the right, positive frame of mind for it.

But he stresses: “There’s absolutely no pressure for anyone to walk. Everyone is told they can back out at any time.

“You get some people who are a bit nervous and hold back, but once they see someone else do it they do it too.

“An awful lot of people come along with their friends. They see them do it with no ill effect and want to do the same themselves.”

It’s suitable for most able-bodied people, and even some of those who aren’t so able-bodied. “You need to be at a normal level of fitness, and if you are diabetic you are not meant to do it, as people with diabetes are prone to foot problems. But I’ve seen people with a walking disability do it. As long as you can manage a steady pace moving forwards you will be okay.”

There’s no legal lower age limit but Martin tends not to accept people under 16 – unless they are especially mature and sensible, and have parental permission.

It’s open to both sexes but he finds: “Two-thirds to 75 per cent of the people who do it are women.

“I don’t know why that is. Women seem to be a lot braver than men.”

Firewalking has existed for many years but its modern popularity emerged in the USA in the late 1970s. As Martin puts it: “Everything comes across from America sooner or later, for good or bad.”

A teacher called Tolly Burkan was introduced to it, and Martin says: “It had such an effect on him that he decided he wanted to teach everybody else how to do it.

“In 1983 he taught it to a motivational speaker called Tony Robbins.” Robbins helped popularise it in Europe.

It’s becoming a popular event among charity fundraisers – a sponsored firewalk is a bit different from a sponsored walk¬ – and one of Martin’s events was at Carlisle Rugby Club at Halloween. Participants in fancy dress were raising money for Fletcher’s Fund, which helps pay for days out for families with seriously ill children.

The month before there was one in Newcastle in aid of the Atlantic Dream Challenge, an attempt by two men to break the record for rowing across the Atlantic Ocean. On Burns Night next year he is running another in Glasgow to help Epilepsy Scotland.

“To me it’s important to help the smaller charities,” he says. “The big ones like Cancer Research UK and the British Heart Foundation get a lot of support.”

And soon he will be organising new walking challenges – glass walking and Lego walking.

The first glass walking event will be back in Newcastle, again in support of the Atlantic Dream Challenge.

Participants walk over paths of broken wine bottles, and he points out the difference.

“With a firewalk you walk at a steady pace, as you would walk anywhere. A glass walk has to be slower and more careful.

“It’s like walking on a beach covered in shells. Sometimes you’ll get the odd prick.”

Lego walks are still to come. “They are a lot more uncomfortable, and very expensive to set up,” he says. “The amount of Lego you need is phenomenal.”

Martin finds that the exhilaration of his first ever firewalk hasn’t disappeared.

“I still get the same buzz from it, though I manage to do it without crying now!” he says. “But I get a bigger buzz watching other people do it.

“You see the nervous look on someone’s face and then the huge smile when they step off at the other end. That gives me a big kick.”

n For more details e-mail Martin at northernfirewalkinguk@yahoo.com or phone 07909 681691.