A YEAR on from the London Olympics, an Oxford postie has visited every postbox painted gold to celebrate the Games’ heroes.

Postman Gary White, 29, completed the 3,200-mile journey and visited the 105th box on Thursday, the anniversary of the first Olympics event.

Royal Mail painted postboxes gold in the home towns of Team GB gold medal winners in last year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games, including Oxford’s Paralympic rowing cox Lily van den Broecke.

Mr White hopes to have raised more than £1,000 from the journey for the Motor Neurone Disease Association in memory of his aunt, Christine Goodall, who died last year aged 56 from the disease.

He said: “She was a bit of an explorer herself. She had the gold Duke of Edinburgh award and she moved to the United States to live.

“I think she would be pleased with the fact that I raised the money the way I did. I think it is the sort of thing she would have enjoyed doing.”

He added: “The charity will be able to use the money I have raised for people like us and my aunt. I know it will be going to a good cause.”

The journey ended in Stratford, East London, near the Olympic Park at the postbox that was installed to celebrate the Olympic Games itself rather than an athlete.

Mr White was joined by his mum Sue to visit the last two boxes.

Mr White, who lives in Boars Hill, near Oxford, travelled the length and breadth of mainland Britain during his journey, visiting postboxes in Scotland and Wales.

He said: “Overall, it was great. The best part of it was just meeting people by the boxes.

“Around London people weren’t very chatty, but elsewhere people shared their stories of the Olympics and the athletes.

“Everyone was really enthusiastic about it.”

Asked if the Olympic spirit had survived, he said: “Definitely. I didn’t receive any negative remarks and everyone was really pleased about what the athletes had done.”

Asked about the hardest part of the journey, he said: “Last Monday, which I think ended up being the hottest day of the year.

“I’m ginger, so I didn’t cope with the heat very well.”

He added: “Luckily the traffic was great for the whole journey, apart from going into Cardiff – but that was during rush hour.

“The only bad traffic I hit was coming into Oxford on the A40 from Witney.”

He originally planned to visit 104 postboxes, but discovered in Carshalton in London that the postbox for cyclist Joanna Rowsell had been painted red.

He said local residents had argued that although she had been born in Carshalton, she had been brought up in nearby Cheam – which now has a gold postbox. Mr White visited both.

Mr White, who is now back to delivering letters in and around Oxford, is planning more fundraising adventures.

Royal Mail spokeswoman Val Bodden congratulated Mr White and added: “Gary’s colleagues all gave generously to show their support.”

Royal Mail announced earlier this month that the Olympic postboxes will remain gold.