A retired tax inspector with no formal music qualifications has become the first person to play every cathedral organ in England, Wales and Scotland.

John Richards has travelled from the most southern cathedral in Truro to Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands, in his bid to play all 94 cathedral organs in Britain.

Cardiff based Richards's 20 year journey was born out of tragedy when his first wife Barbara died suddenly, his grief destroying his love of music.

In a bid to help him through his grief, Richards's second wife, Lynn, enlisted the nation's cathedrals to help her husband rediscover his love of music.

Mrs Evans told ITV News correspondent, Rupert Evelyn: "What I saw in the early days is what you would call a broken man.

"What grief can do to a person; it can stop them still in their tracks as they say."

She said: "I wanted the music the come back and play through him."

The pair began their tour of the nation's cathedrals in 1997 and Richards has played the organ in some of Britain's most iconic places of worship, including Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral.

He even met former Prime Minister Edward Heath after testing out the organ in Salisbury.

Richards's journey has not only helped him through a difficult time, but has touched those who have heard him play, as he discovered in Orkney last week.

He said: "A woman in a wheelchair came over to me and said, 'it was the funeral of brother today and I wasn't able to go. But one of the hymns on the (funeral) sheet was The Lord Is My Shepherd and when I came into the cathedral today, you were playing it.'

"It's moments like that, that can be very touching," he said.

Richards's musical journey isn't over yet; he aims to continue his quest in Ireland, both Northern and Southern, next.

Watch Rupert Evelyn's full report on ITV News At Ten.