A SOLDIER from the North-East is back in the UK after a sterling performance in a gruelling 150-race across the Sahara.

Green Howard, Lieutenant Ben Knox, from Hartforth, near Richmond, North Yorkshire, was the first Briton home in the 16th Marathon des Sables, finishing 26th in the competition in a field of more than 700 from across the globe.

All the competitors had to complete the equivalent of five marathons within seven days, with daytime temperatures reaching 60C and plunging to just 5C at night, while carrying their own food, a sleeping bag and a survival kit on their backs.

An instructor at the Infantry Training Centre at Catterick Garrison, Lt Knox once gave up cross country running at school because he hated it.

However, he took it up again last year when he returned from a competition in Norway with his regiment's biathlon team.

"At Christmas, I really began to increase the miles and would go up to the dales and do hill reps - running up and down the hills.''

Speaking about his Sahara experience, he said: "I just aimed to get round and took it really steady on the first day, when I was placed 77th. On the second day I was 33rd. I began to realise I could actually compete in this, not just finish it, and I had a real change of motivation and it just got better and better.''

As well as finishing, Lt Knox - a former pupil at Hurworth House Prep School, near Darlington - raised £12,500 for Starbright, the charity which raises funds for the Children's Cancer Fund at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary, and Candlelighters, which performs the same task for St James's Hospital, in Leeds.