Peter Dulvy, a 32-year-old marathon runner from Newry, Co Down, started the 'Heels on Fire' endurance run on 4 May to "highlight development work, do something no one else has done and to chronicle life in India".

He is accompanied by friends, including Stevie Young from Mayobridge, outside Newry. Young, 24, is assisting Delhi-based cinematographer Desmond Roberts in filming the epic run.

Dulvy is also accompanied by travel writer Rahul Singh who runs with him most days.

Dulvy has managed to meet his childhood hero PT Usha while running in Kerala. Since watching the sprinter in the 1980 Moscow Olympics, he has wanted to meet her and she agreed to join the group as they ran past her home town in north Kerala.

"It was a boyhood dream come true. The 11-year-old boy inside me smiled contentedly and the 32-year-old grinned mercilessly, " he said.

The Newry man has taken part in over 20 marathons including runs in Ireland, Afghanistan, South Africa, Scotland and Jordan. He decided he wanted to run across Kerala after attending a friend's wedding there last November.

"It occurred to me that it would be amazing to run through such a beautiful place.

So a few good books and a few months later, I was running, " he said.

So far, Dulvy has covered 202km of his run across the Indian province and averages 20km a day in temperatures of 350C. He hopes to reach Kanyakumari, at the southernmost tip of India, by 31 May.