He battled through blizzards, waded through floods, crossed scorching desert and survived a hit-and-run accident. Yet as the British walker Phil Goddard ended a 3,091-mile (4,970km) trek across America yesterday, he described his journey as a “healing experience”.

The 48-year-old widower took a celebratory dip in the Pacific Ocean to mark the end of a ten-month odyssey from the bustling streets of New York to the rolling surf of Los Angeles, made in honour of his late wife, Jayne Comins, a speech therapist and psycho-therapist who died of cancer last year, aged 49.

Mr Goddard walked an estimated 7.4 million steps across 13 states, carrying a 40lb (18kg) rucksack and wearing out three pairs of walking boots and a dozen pairs of socks. For 700 miles along isolated roads where supplies were scarce, he wheeled a pushchair full of food and water ahead of him.

“It’s possible that people will think that this was an odd way of getting through grief,” he admitted yesterday, after crossing the finishing line at Venice Beach, Los Angeles.

“But tramping along the highways and byways of America was an opportunity to work through all the happy memories of my life with Jayne.” The coast-to-coast walk, which he completed on what would have been their 18th wedding anniversary, also raised more than £40,000 in aid of the British-based Association for International Cancer Research.

He said that people had often asked him if getting up and walking again each morning was a strain? “I said no, it’s just like getting up and going out to work all day . . . the only difference is that the money was going to charity and not to me.”

While taking time off to do voluntary work rebuilding hurricane-shattered homes in New Orleans, he fell for Pam Dean, 47, an American, who he says has “helped me turn a corner”. “I feel I now have a whole new stage of my life to look forward to,” he said.

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