UPDATE: MONDAY 10 MAY 2010

We did it!!!

It was an excellently organised walk with 9 checkpoints along the way making sure we were fed, watered and not going missing or flagging too badly. To be honest, the conditions were pretty miserable - cold, wet, with varying degrees of drizzle / rain, and a biting wind that, at times, took the breath away. The toughest points for me came between 23 and 28 miles, when it felt like there was never going to be an end, and the last 3.5 miles, which I had thought would feel great as we were nearly there, but in reality felt like a marathon. In short, it was really, really hard work!

However. The team was given the most amazing support by Steve and Bridget Withers, the impact of which was immeasurable. They drove to meet us at various points along the course and dispensed hot tea and coffee, sandwiches, fruit, sweets, and (amazingly!) hot bacon butties and pasta, and awesome home-made brownies - as well as a significant amount of support, encouragement and blister plasters. Meeting friendly faces bearing such goodies along the way made absolutely all the difference, so a heartfelt thank you to you both for everything!

So despite varying degrees of aches, pains and blisters, all those who planned to finish, did so. An excellent result all round and the whole team feels justifiably really proud of ourselves!

If you were holding out on sponsorship until you knew it was *really* going to happen, step forward now! And to those who have helped us to get this far - £915 as I type this - thank you SO much. When I was flagging it honestly made such a difference to know that people had donated their hard earned cash to recognise what we were doing, and drove me on to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Thanks again for everything, and well done everyone for all your hard-walked miles!

Em x

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There was once a woman named Emma
Who gave all her friends a dilemma
"You can walk for a day
Or otherwise pay -
Whichever you think will be better!"

So, if you've been lucky enough to escape joining team Walk Withers you don't have to walk for a day - but if you're reading this, it does mean I'm asking you to pay...

What do you get out of it? Well I can think of at least 3 things:

~ The satisfaction of knowing that I and the rest of team Walk Withers will be spending 13 hours walking 40 miles on Saturday 8 May along the Ridgeway, while you do something infinitely more fun instead (I don't know what you're doing, but I'm *pretty* sure that most things will be more fun)
~ The rosy glow of giving to a charity - Iain Rennie Hospice at Home - which provides real, practical and compassionate care to people reaching the end of their lives with cancer - people like my grandma, Pauline, who died in November 2008
~ Erm, that's probably it, actually.

In all honesty, I really don't know if I'll be able to finish the walk - 40 miles is TERRIFYINGLY far, so knowing that people are donating money to a great charity will hopefully spur me on to reach the end.

So - thanks for whatever you can donate! And please do click the link on the left to read more about Iain Rennie Hospice at Home.

Emma and the rest of team Walk Withers

PS: Here's the detail bit about JustGiving:

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 and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.