One mellow day last October, I was walking near our family cottage on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, hills rolling away to the sea to the north and south of me... and realised I didn't want to stop! 

So, for two weeks starting late May, I won't be. 

I decided to walk between the two places I love best: my sunny little flat in Kennington, central London, and our wild cottage on the Cornish moors - and use it to fundraise for a relevant and wonderful cause. 

A friend introduced me to Jamie's Farm; with its ethos of helping children at risk of exclusion through 'Farming + Family + Therapy', I  immediately knew it was the cause I'd been looking for. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNkRP9M7n2w

Over the years I've taken countless urban friends to our cottage, taught them to light fires and map-read and dragged them on long walks via the medium of the pub... While these were people from relatively privileged backgrounds, the ethos as with Jamie's Farm was the transformative power of rural life: time to think, to live at a 'human' pace, and work through the realities of life. 

I remember looking round at business school and realising that out of the c.80 nationalities represented, I was the only one who had grown up entirely in the countryside: planting in the spring, picking fruit in the summer, building bonfires in autumn... It is not 'normal' to grow up like this in the modern world, and for that I feel extremely privileged, and am passionate about its importance. Even more so in a world of ever-increasing automation and urbanisation.

I'm wildly excited about the walk itself (and occasionally apprehensive..) - it works out at about 20 miles a day, along ancient ways and through picturesque villages at a beautiful time of year. Of course, it could always decide to rain solidly - at which point the thought of your support will be really helpful! I'll be staying in simple local B&Bs and hopefully meeting many interesting people in pubs en route.

I plan to blog my progress for anyone interested, and will be posting the link shortly.

[And for those interested: the cottage, South Priddacombe, is available for rent via Forgotten Houses:  http://www.forgottenhouses.co.uk/properties/south-priddacombe/]

Thank you !!