Thank you for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

My sister Penny is currently Mayor of the Royal and Ancient Borough of Kingston upon Thames, and I am Mayoress.  We can no longer remember which one of us had the mildly mad idea of walking about 27 miles, in one day, around the borough boundary, in order to raise money for the Mayor's Charitable Trust.  Suffice it to say that she has been sensible enough to plead pressure of work and I am the one doing the walking!

Penny has chosen to dedicate the money raised by the Charitable Trust during her mayoral year to two charities: the Princess Alice Hospice and Alzheimer's Society, Kingston.  The Princess Alice Hospice is a charity which was already close to my heart because of the outstanding care its staff and volunteers provided to my husband Peter, the sort of care they continue to provide to people throughout the borough.  As Mayoress I have also seen wonderful work done by the Alzheimer's Society in Kingston, for example through the Singing for the Brain initiative.

Walking 27 miles is a considerable challenge for me as I've never been a long distance walker, though Peter was, but with charities like this to support I simply have to train for it and do it!  And that is where encouragement is so valuable.  Friends like Don, Carol, Frances and Susanne have walked parts of the route with me and offered advice and help which has kept me going. As a result I've been able to build up from walking 8 to 18 miles in a day.  But the going is getting harder and this is why I'm starting my Just Giving page today as I know that the donations will give me the extra motivation to keep on walking!

 Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

STOP PRESS

We made it!  Susanne and Jerome and I did the walk on 2nd April as planned.  The weather was kind and we all enjoyed the walk very much. As one photo shows, we weren't the only ones on the commons and roads that day, and we do hope the toads made it too.

Very many thanks to Jane and to Frances for, respectively, their wonderful send-off and reception!

And very many thanks to all who have donated.  You've done us proud!

... and if you haven't already done so, it's not too late to donate.

Thank you all.