The Plan

Six of us have decided to walk across England following Wainright's Coast to Coast walk. The walk stretches for around 200 miles (or more if we get lost!) between St. Bees on the Irish Sea coast and Robin Hood’s Bay on the coast of the North Sea. The walk will begin on September 27th and should take a total of two weeks

The Team

The team consists of Lizzy (me), Dean, Peter (aka my dad), Alan (my uncle), Penny and not forgetting my mum Angela who is stepping way out of her usual B&B comfort zone to do this! (mum and Penny will only complete the first half of the walk but they assure us that it is by far the hardest half!)

We are not taking the soft option of B&B accommodation but have chosen instead to carry all of our own equipment for camping and cooking.

The Causes

And now for the important bit: why are we doing this?

Well other than the fact that we're mad and want to brave it just as the weather gets chilly, it is all in aid of two great causes!

Guide dogs for the blind is a cause that is very close to my family's heart. My uncle's grandaughter, Megan, has become almost completely blind at the age of 16 due to Retinitis Pigmentosa (this progressively destroys the retina's function of absorbing light). There is no cure. Megan has to get around with the aid of a white stick, but is now in the assessment system for a Guide Dog! Guide dogs provide independence and freedom to thousands of blind and partially-sighted people across the UK. All this comes at a price and the full lifetime "cost of a guidedog" from birth to retirement is £49,800....so every penny raised really does count!

Myself and Dean work at Birdworld Bird Park near Farnham and because guide dogs are the only dogs welcomed to the park (other dogs tend to try to eat the birds!) they have kindly offered to support our walk.

Birdworld also raises money for conservation projects supporting endangered species in the wild so anyone sponsoring myself and Dean have the choice to support Guidedogs on this JustGiving page or Birdworld Conservation Projects via the following link:

http://www.birdworld.co.uk/support-lizzy-and-dean-and-the-birdworld-conservation-projects.html

 (or both if you like!)   

Amongst our equipment, I will be carrying a small Birdworld mascot in the form of a cuddly Blue and Gold Macaw (Charlie McMascot). Regular visitors to Birdworld will be aware of Charlie the Macaw who is the star of the daily flying displays and who, amazingly for a parrot, has his own Facebook page. I'll post updates of our progress by posting pictures of the mascot at various locations along the route onto Charlie’s pages via my mobile phone. If anyone would like to follow our progress go to Charlie Macs Facebook Page.

Thanks to everyone in advance......we promise to succeed even if we have to crawl the last bit!

Lizzy and the Team x

 

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

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