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Pastor walks 60 miles for parishioner

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HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif., June 20 (UPI) -- A Huntington Beach, Calif., pastor says his walking 60 miles in five-mile increments around his church was in dedication to a parishioner with eye cancer.

Pastor Bob Ewing of the First Christian Church says he has taken up fitness challenges before but when he turned 60 he decided to dedicate this particular effort to parishioner Jake Olson, 13, blind from retinoblastoma, The Orange County (Calif.) Register reported.

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Ewing says his hopes to raise at least $6,000 from family and friends who donated $1 a mile before he began his walk. The money will go to Institute for Families, an organization assisting families with children who have eye diseases, the newspaper said Saturday.

"Bob has really been wonderful to the family," said Marianne Brizendine, Olson's grandmother. "He comes and prays with us when we feel like we really need it -- for instance when Jake went on to losing his (remaining) eye in November."

At around 4:30 p.m. Saturday at mile 50, Ewing said his "feet were taking a beating" and he was in bad shape.

"I've got blisters on my feet. I get an allergic reaction. It's caused sometimes by heat, but I've got welts and things on my body," he said. "I'll deal with that, but actually my energy is gone."

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But he kept going: "You just decide to finish it and you finish it."

And at 8 p.m. he did.

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