Story
On July 12th I took on the challenge of Alfred Wainwright’s Coast to Coast walk. I started in St Bees on the Cumbrian Coast and walked to Robin Hood’s Bay on the North Yorkshire Coast, a total of 192 miles. I completed the walk in 13 days. The route passed through three National Parks (Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors).
I thought by doing the walk it would be an ideal opportunity for me to raise much needed funds for the Cotswold Care Hospice (www.cotswoldcare.org.uk), as well as being a personal challenge for myself
Every year, Cotswold Care Hospice needs to raise over £1.4 Million in order to provide essential palliative care services to the people of Gloucestershire.With less than 12% of their funding coming from statutory sources, the Hospice faces a huge challenge to raise these funds each and every year. Every penny raised really does count.
I did the walk as part of a group of 11 plus a guide (I would never have found the way on my own). The group consisted of five Americans who had come over specifically for the walk, one Australian and five English.
Most days we started walking around 8.30am and finished about 5.30pm, some days were longer. On two of the days the route passed a pub around lunch time which was good, but there was a distinct lack of ice cream shops and vans which was not good, considering a lot of my practice walks had been via Winstones Ice Cream factory at Rodborough!
We had all sorts of weather, we walked 25 miles one day in brilliant sunshine, the following day 21 miles in rain, wind, with visibility around 20 metres and had to wear hats and gloves!
I followed the tradition of wetting my boots on the beach in St Bees and picking up a stone (not a very big one) to carry with me, when we arrived at Robin Hood's Bay 13 days later the first thing I did was to wet my boots there and throw the stone into the sea.
It was a great experience, and my boots are now polished for the next adventure.
Hospice care is about helping people to live well throughout their illness from diagnosis onwards, and not just about care in the last days of life. Any potentially life-limiting illnesses can be catered for. Cotswold Care Hospice provides this support within a friendly and relaxed environment and extends this welcome to family members and carers as well as to the patients themselves.
I have had personal experience of the service the Hospice provides. It is second to none, and I cannot think of a better charity to support.
Please donate to help me achieve my target. Remember, any amount will be appreciated, and all donations make a huge difference.
I covered all costs of the walk myself so every penny donated will go to the Hospice
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.
So please dig deep and donate now.
Thank you for taking time to read my page
Jane
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Coast to Coast Walk
Day 1 St Bees to Ennerdale Bridge 14 miles Day 2 Ennerdale Bridge to Borrowdale: 14 miles Day 3 Borrowdale to Grasmere: 10 miles Day 4 Grasmere to Patterdale: 7miles Day 5 Patterdale to Shap: 18miles Day 6 Shap to Kirkby Stephen: 18 miles Day 7 Kirkby Stephen to Keld 16 miles Day 8 Keld to Reeth: 14 miles Day 9 Reeth to Richmond: 10 miles Day 10 Richmond to Osmotherley: 24 miles Day 11 Osmotherley to Blakey: 21 miles Day 12 Blakey to Egton Bridge: 10 miles Day 13 Egton Bridge to Robin Hoods Bay: 16 miles