Updated Monday 3rd October 2011
We made it!
After setting off from Battle at 8.30am, we finally reached Lewes Castle at 6.30pm having endured 10 hours of the hottest October day in nearly 30 years, with temperatures hitting 28 degrees C along the way.
We had hoped to complete the walk in 8 hours, but we simply had to stop far more frequently than expected to take on fluids and cool down in the extreme heat. I know I drank nearly 11 litres of fluid during the day, and must have poured another 3 or so over my head!
Simone was quite simply a star. After some early worries about her legs, by halfway she was feeling much better, and for the last third of the walk I was following in her slipstream and she literally pulled me up the last 100 metres of Lewes High Street, which looked little short of the North Face of the Eiger to me as my legs turned to jelly.
I have posted a few photos for you to see on Flickr at http://tinyurl.com/6baz4xm -- note the startling difference in my demeanour at the finishing post at Lewes Castle compared to the starting line at Battle Abbey!
Thank you to everyone for your donations, support and encouragement, and of course our JustGiving pages will continue to acccept donations for some time to come.
Henry
Thanks for visiting our team fundraising page.
We've joined together to raise money for charity. You'll see our team fundraising target on the right. Your donation can really help us smash this goal.
Henry has been raising money for Combat Stress via his hobby magazine Battlegames for some time now, and has already attracted donations close to £9,000. However, he felt it was time that the Battlegames Combat Stress Appeal was given a real boost by attempting something spectacular, and so this 20 stone, 50-year-old, computer-addicted couch potato decided to get off his backside and start training.
Now he's putting his hard work to the test on 1st October 2011 by walking all the way from Battle Abbey, near Hastings, to Lewes Castle, a distance of nearly 25 miles across the beautiful county of East Sussex. The aim is to complete the distance in less than 8 hours, including comfort breaks.
Henry is a passionate supporter of Combat Stress, which helps ex-services men and women suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and other mental health issues resulting from their service to our country. He is deeply concerned that the involvement of British forces in so many conflicts in recent years is creating a potentially huge mental health problem as our service men and women leave the armed forces in the coming years. This includes many soldiers, sailors and airmen from Sussex who have served with distinction in the Falklands, Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Iraq, Afghanistan and now the Libyan crisis too.
Henry is being joined by Simone Drinkwater, a publishing industry colleague who benefits from being much younger and fitter, but she's got to put up with Henry along the way! Simone, who works as Business Development Manager for Newbury-based military history publishers Casemate, has undertaken long walks before, completing 23 miles along the Ridgeway near her home in Oxford earlier this year.
Simone's father sadly died of Hepatitis C a few years ago, and so Simone will be raising money for The Hepatitis C Trust, an entirely patient-led and patient-run organization. All its’ staff, both paid and voluntary, either have hepatitis C or have had it and have cleared it after treatment.
They are committed to raising awareness to encourage people to come forward and get tested. There are currently 500,000 people undiagnosed in the UK alone, many of whom will not even be aware that they may have been at risk.
So, when you sponsor us on our 25-mile walk across Sussex on 1st October 2011 from Battle to Lewes, you can choose which of these wonderful charities you wish to support.
All donations will be welcome, whether small or large.
Remember: Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never share them with anyone or send you unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. They'll make sure Gift Aid (an additional 28%) is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer, too. That means more money goes to the charity, faster, with JustGiving.
So please dig deep and donate now.
