Hi everyone and thanks for taking the time to visit our Just Giving page. 

We've been thinking about doing a (very) long walk for some time as a physical and mental challenge and decided on Italy's Via Francigena (the Camino de Santiago de Compostela's less well-known sister route). We've been on training walks in England (with the emphasis on 'raining') but we're not particularly fit and we're not in our 20s or 30s. We have full on busy jobs, family and a needy dog. Between us we've got back and foot problems so, all in all, a 500km hill walk in 30 degree heat carrying everything on our backs seemed like the right challenge. 

Then we decided to give our walk another purpose: to raise money for people whose lives have been stopped in their tracks. 

Our Cause

Walking in aid of the Earthquake Appeal in Nepal has given us focus and strengthened our resolve.  Please help us support the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) in their efforts to help the people of this stricken country.  The story has already moved to the back pages, despite the devastating effects on the population. Here are some horrendous statistics as they stand 2 weeks before our walk:

• 8,673 people have been killed 
  
• 16,808 people have been injured
• 1.7 million children live in the worst-hit areas
• 2.8 million people have been displaced
• 130,000 houses have been destroyed

How your help will make a world of difference

For most of us, the scale of the devastation and the numbers affected are too big to deal with. But we have to remember that each one represents a personal tragedy, a life turned upside down, a home, school and security, gone. 

It's astonishing though how a little help from each of us, individually can go a long way. For example:

• £10 will provide an emergency water kit for a family
  
• £25 will provide life-saving rehydration salts to treat 80 children
  
• £30 will buy two tarpaulins to help make temporary shelters for those who have been left homeless
  
• £50 will pay for blankets for four families 
  
• £100 will buy eleven hygiene kits to prevent the spread of disease
  

Every £ of your donation will go directly to the charities on the ground, facilitated, regulated and monitored by the DEC.

Please support us if you can, so we can support them.

The Walk

Our route follows part of the journey of Sigeric the Serious, Archbishop of Canterbury, on his way to Rome to visit the Pope John XV in 990 AD.

The official route, faithful to the one dictated by the Archbishop in his diaries, is divided into 79 stages from Canterbury through France, Switzerland and Italy to arrive in Rome. It is 2,000 km in length and passes through seven Italian regions and 140 municipalities, with a total of 44 stages in Italy. It takes the average pilgrim about 5 months to walk the whole route from England.

We have only a 3 week window so we will take the final 500km section from Massa in the north of Italy to Vatican City. The Via Francigena is not as well developed as the Camino in Spain - it's not as well signposted,  nor are there anything like as many pilgrim hostels along the way. Although the Italian government is beginning to make improvements, we are simply looking forward to walking, doing something good, and to not knowing quite what to expect. 

Thank you for your support

Tamsin & Owen

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