Last April, Afasic launched its challenge to members, friends and supporters to walk, run, or cycle the length of the UK mainland coastline. Since then we have had many people take part in the challenge, covering distances that have ranged from 2 miles to over 300 miles, all of which counted towards the challenge. So far we have raised over £10,500 in sponsorship as a result and are very grateful to everyone for all their hard work in helping to achieve this.
In the last month or so those taking part have included:
- Clare Davies-Jones, who successfully walked 12 miles of the North Norfolk Coast to raise over £2,000 in sponsorship for the Afasic Youth Project. That may not sound like much but just over a year earlier Clare had broken her hip so it was a real achievement.
- Abby Beverly and Chris Wells successfully completed a 30-mile walk along the Essex coast from Ramsey Island to Tollesbury and have raised over £800 for the Afasic Youth Project.
- About 22 people from the Language Centre at York University have been involved in walking and cycling the whole of the Yorkshire coastline over a series of 4 weekends, in March and April.
- Marysia Nash, Gemma Wilson and Gill Earl are walking a part of the coast between Edinburgh and Dunbar on the east coast of Scotland. Marysia said “Gemma, Gill and I started on Saturday 2nd April and walked about 12 miles between Aberlady and North Berwick in East Lothian. It was a fabulous afternoon and we have already raised some sponsor money. On the second weekend we walked from Portobello to Preston Pans (Gemma ran that section the following day in a half Marathon!). We got the dogs to model the t-shirts and people at Portobello prom were so taken with the models that one person gave a £10 spontaneous donation!”.
- Anthony Sullivan has cycled the length of the Lincolnshire coast (150+ miles).
- Valerie Benge and Lynne Thomas walked 20 miles along the Cumbria coast from Grange over Sands to Ulverston.
- Carol Lingwood & Liz Appleton walked 2 miles along the coastal path from Pudscombe Cove to Scabbacombe Head in Devon.
- Our regular cyclist Jonathan Edwards has been at it again, this time cycling between Teesmouth to Tynemouth.
- Chi and Paul, their son Marley, and Anh (sister of Chi) walked the 15 miles from Poole to Southbourne (Dorset) in April to raise sponsorship for the Afasic Youth Project.
- Margaret Braiden walked from Port William to Monreith on the West Coast of Scotland.
- Good luck to Chris Rowe who is planning to run / walk 100 miles in a day!
Even though our one year deadline was reached at the end of last month, we have come so far that we are keen to finish the whole coastline if we can, and so are extending the deadline till the end of December this year!
If you are interested in joining in, the areas that are still to be covered at the moment include:
Cornwall, Cumbria (North from Ulverston to Gretna), Devon, Dorset (Poole to Lyme Regis), Hampshire, Somerset, Northumberland, West Sussex (Southwick to Emsworth), Scotland – East Coast (North of Edinburgh)- North Coast (All) – West Coast (Gretna to Monreith, and Port William to Dumbarton), and Wales (Swansea to Pembroke, Fishguard to Aberystwyth, and Tywyn to Caernarfon).
We are very grateful to all those who have taken part so far and hope that many more will want to join in the challenge and help us to cover the whole of the UK.
