We are overwhelmed by your support

 Totally overwhelmed by the response to our fundraising. 

What an incredible group of people you all are. You are really spurring us on with our preparation. 8 years since our last charity walk and we have definitely aged and feeling less capable but your support has spurred us on to get fit for what is our toughest challenge yet. 

£3500 already wow,wow,wow!!! 

A huge thank you 

Your donations are making a difference to many struggling with their Mental health 💙💙

Thank you xxx

Fully arranged

 It takes some sorting out as dog friendly but we have our itinerary fully completed well in advance and are looking forward to this challenging schedule. 

We have managed to book a Pod for the night of Steve’s 60th  

Our itinerary is now confirmed as follows 

Day 1 Edale - Crowden 

2 Crowden - Diggle 

3 Diggle - Hebden Bridge 

4 Hebden Bridge - Cowling 

5 Cowling - Kirkby Malham 

6 Kirkby Malham - Horton in Ribblesdale 

7 Ribblesdale - Hawes 

8 Hawes to Keld 

9 Keld - Cotherstone via Baldersdale  

10 Baldersdale - High Force 

11 High Force - Dufton - Appleby 

12 back Dufton- Alston 

13 Alston - Greenhead 

14 Greenhead - Bellingham 

15 Bellingham - Byrness 

16 Byrness - Trows 

17 Trows - Kirk Yetholm

Elm Burr clock to be won

 All our supporters who donate whatever method or amount will go into the draw for an Elm Burr clock. 

If our total goes over £5,000 I will make a second price for the draw  

If you want to see a video of it being made it’s on my YouTube page here. 

Click here for video

An amazing start to our fundraising

We have already started to raise money for Mind via sponsorship forms and justgiving.
We have been overwhelmed by the response of our family and friends worldwide and can report that we have already reached over £1700 

You can follow our progress, OR DONATE, with the fund raising on

Just Giving Page .

Or scan the QR code

The Pennine Way

 Well we’ve  managed to plan it finally and 2024 Charity walk is on. After some very stressful times over the recent years with Mental Illness causing a huge upheaval to our families lives and also losing some close friends to it we have decided to support MIND. 

To make it dog friendly we will have to go off route a few times but return each day so the complete Pennine way along the central mountains of England, the Pennines and the Cheviots is done. The extra miles will mean we are walking  about 450km (280miles) From Edale in Derbyshire Peak District to Kirk Yetholm in Scotland borders. 

12,000 meters of ascent which is approx 9 x Ben Nevis. 🙈

Training begins now I just hope we’ve  not bitten of more than I can do as we are not getting any younger and a have few old injuries but doing it in 17 days 

As you can see Jane, Kirsty and I have done 2 long walks for Charity before and had incredible support hopefully we can go somewhere close to matching that support. We’ve done nothing this challenging before. 

We will personally fund the challenge so 100% of monies raised will go to charity. 

All details will be circulated later in the  year it’s too soon to worry about now. ❤️

Totals

I am Very Sorry for the late posting of this.
I am proud so of Jane and Kirsty 
After collecting almost all sponsor money,  I have posted a final cheque to Cancer Research UK. 
Our total is an amazing £4,701.14 this means our two walks have raised the astonishing total of £10,316.14
The Winner of the draw for the clock was Steve Stanyer in Birmingham. 
We can only thank everyone for their unbelievable support and while we have seen some incredible scenery, met some fabulous people and our belief that most people are good people has been proved. the sense of achievement has helped the family cope with the trauma of the loss of loved ones and for this we are most grateful to you all. And to top it all we have raised loads towards beating this cruel illness.
We have found a new love of long distance walking and while we shall not be taking on more sponsored walks for sometime we will continue to explore this glorious country we live in, so thanks again to our friends and family for your help.

The final day of our challenge - Ben Nevis

Ben Nevis Summit and back 

GPS 114.8 miles

Well the last day has arrived and we must concour the mighty Ben Nevis to compete our challenge for Cancer Research.

We start the day by meeting our friends Andy and Jannine. We were so greatful  for their company it made the climb bearable after 104 miles our legs were tired and they helped raise our spirts to finish.

We started out at the Ben Nevis carpark  with the weather dry but we could see that the top of the mountain was shrouded in cloud and there was no hope of a clear day. At low level we had some views.

 It was not long before it started to rain and the waterproof coats were in action. This of course made us sweat as the only way is up.

The pathways still very busy even though the weather was not brilliant.

We reached a water fall approx halfway up and already we were feeling the effects of the long walk over the last week and it was becoming hard work. 

This was not helped by the fact we are only half way and we reach the cloud base. From here it is a hard relentless slog. But we did have a small window of opportunity just before we hit the clouds for a photo.

Yes only halfway and we are pretty high.

We just keep climbing with little visability.

The temperature was dropping rapidly and the walkers coming down all looked very cold. We eventually saw a snow drift -it's almost August!.

And soon reached the highest War memorial in Britain

We know it's not far now and the summit is soon to appear in the mist out of nowhere.  We Have Done It!!

At this point there is no one in Britain above us. We are at 4,406 ft.

With a wind chill of -5 pouring rain and strong gusts it was not a place to linger so after only 10 mins at the summit  we start our descent.

Now if anyone tells you it's easier coming down please slap them, as we descended our knees  (not Kirsty's) really started to complain and we knew this challenge had taken a lot out of us. Every step seemed a tough one by the time we were halfway down but the clouds had lifted slightly since our ascent and some good views were to be had so a few pics were taken.

 As we dropped down Kirsty eventually removed her bobble hat that made an appearance as we left the summit dueto the   cold.

The sun was now shining and we made our way to the end made better with some stunning scenery.

It's was with relief that the walk was almost finished and we were ready for our complimentary  drinks from one of our most generous sponsors Andy Griffin. Cheers Andy.

All that was left was the short walk along the river to the visitor center and it was a pleasant change to walk on the flat.

We must thank Andy and Jannine for making the end of our challenge so enjoyable 

We have finished tired and worn out but this has been an amazing journey- lots of fun and laughter along the way with some highs and no low to speak off. We have got very wet at times. But the sense of achievement is incredible Also spending time together as a family can not be beaten. But most of all we have raised a huge amount of money for Cancer Research, thanks to all our fantastic supporters. I shall post the totally when all money is in but it's over £4,000 pounds THANK YOU EVERYONE.