TESSA TOPS THE BOSS, U2 AND THE KING OF POP

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Sat 10th Apr 2010

Tessa Munt and Amos Hurst model the Tessa’s Tour 2010 sweatshirt

There have been some marathon tours over the last 30 years.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's Reunion Tour featured 133 shows, U2 played 131 Vertigo gigs and Michael Jackson was on the road for 123 dates during his Bad World Tour.

However, a local would-be MP has topped all of these, visiting 184 communities on her tours around the Wells parliamentary constituency.

Tessa Munt, the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate, has met people in the constituency's every hamlet, village, town and its one city during the last seven years.

And, like the bands' tours, Tessa has a Tessa's Tour 2010 sweatshirt which show the extent of the area which makes up the parliamentary constituency.

Tessa said: "My tour sweatshirt has the names of all 184 communities on it, and I've visited every place - and many places several times - since I started knocking on doors again in May 2005, two weeks after the last General Election, when we came so close to winning.

"Since then, I have met more than 48,000 voters on the doorstep and have learned a lot from them, giving me an excellent idea of what people want from their MP.

"I've still some way to go, as there are 80,000 people who are entitled to vote here, and often people are out at work or away, so I always try to go back again to meet those I've missed.

"My latest tour started in December and I will have visited every community once more before May 6, the expected date of the General Election. After that, I'll start again, win or not."

With Tessa is Amos Hurst, of Street, Tessa's volunteer driver for the last few weeks leading up to the General Election.

"Having help with driving is a necessity," Tessa said, "because I leave the house before 8am and I'm usually not home until after 11pm. It's safer that way.

"Amos worked with me in the run-up to the 2005 General Election - he knows the area, lots of people and he's great company.

"He drives my dualfuel car - which lessens the impact on the environment of my need to have a car in what is a large, rural constituency."