Why this challenge?

The person in the picture is not me but Giuseppe Carleschi, my dad.
The last book he read was ‘The Pilgrim’ by Paulo Coelho, he read it while in hospital and to cheer him up I remember asking him all about it.
It is a classic Coelho’s story that narrates of a young person embarking on a long walk to discover the world and nurture his own soul and we couldn’t help but pretending that we will do the same together one day after the hospital. Unfortunately my dad died from the skin cancer malignant melanoma three months later. He was only 57.

The walk the book refers to is the ‘Camino de Santiago’, one of the oldest pilgrimage routes for Christians. It stretches for 778 kms (518 miles) from a little village on the French side of the Pyrenees all the way to a Galician city called ‘Santiago de Campostela’, supposedly the place where Saint James decided after many long and exhausting years spent preaching to take a rest and look up at the stars (‘campostela’ means field of stars).

My challenge is to walk the walk and reach Santiago in 30 days. Once there I’ll probably take some well deserved rest looking up at the stars while thinking of the people I’ve met, the ones I’ve lost along the way and, ultimately, my dad.

Why skin cancer?

Melanoma is a nasty business.

I give you some facts: there are over 75,000 new cases of skin cancer diagnosed each year in the UK, many cases are not reported so the real number of cases is probably much higher: over 2,300 people die from skin cancer each year in the UK.

They expect that 1 in 50 will suffer from it in Britain, with a very high death rate that is doubling every year.

Why Myfamwy Townsend Melanoma Research Fund?

Every journey starts somewhere and mine started the day that I spoke to Harry Townsend.

Harry lost his wife Myfanwy to malignant melanoma and he then decided to set up a charity to raise awareness, to make early diagnosis more available and to fund research to find a cure for this terrible disease which affects millions of people worldwide.

Harry, now 72, has done many fundraising challenges, including climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, 'rowing' a marathon on a rowing machine, walking 100 kms in the Sahara desert, walking end to end of the north island of New Zealand (800 miles in 68 days) pushing a wheelbarrow (George) and walking the same 518 miles I'm going to, the Spanish pilgrim trail (writing a book about it called 'the slowest pilgrim').

Harry's latest challenge is to set an unbeatable record for Most Sponsors for One Person for One Event: TWELVE MONTHS TO RAISE A MILLION, where 'Million' means a million sponsors and a million pounds. Harry's next adventure will be to trek from rim to rim of the Grand Canyon on September 10th and 11th.

Please help me support Harry and Myfanwy Townsend melanoma Research Fund.