Thanks for visiting the Just Giving Page for my 2021 mega fundraising challenge – to virtually run from Land’s End to John O’Groats over the year, which is a distance of 874 miles.

About me and this challenge

If you don’t know me, depending on when you read this in 2021, I’m either 42 or 43 years old so sadly now in the veteran category for pretty much every sport. I live in a village called Comberton, just outside of Cambridge, with my wife Beth and two daughters, Kate and Alice. For my business, I run two climbing centres with Beth, Clip ‘n Climb Cambridge, and with our crystal ball of predicting good timing suffering a severe malfunction, Climb Quest Milton Keynes, which we opened a month before Covid 19 hit last year.

I’ve always been quite sporty but the main sports I play now are Real Tennis (the original and very quirky version of lawn tennis) and Golf – both are not exactly high energy and although I’ve done a bit of running over the years, I’ve never done anything near a marathon, so this will be a serious challenge for me; 874 miles is the equivalent of over 33 marathons!

The first motivation for doing the challenge is to give me a target that I’m in control of working towards and achieving. This is giving me a huge boost to deal with all uncertainties of life and business at the moment, helping me focus my energies on doing my best with what I can do something about.

My second motivation is to use this challenge as an opportunity to raise much needed funds for charity and so I’d like to introduce the two amazing charities that your donations will help support. Both help children and young people and their families. They are run from where our two climbing centres are located, in Cambridge and Milton Keynes, respectively. Over the Covid pandemic they have both been hit by the double whammy of their services being in more need than ever before, but at the same time their fundraising efforts being seriously hampered.

If you donate through this page, I’ll split the money 50-50 with each charity, but I’ve also set up a fundraising page for each charity, so if you would like to donate to one in particularly, there are links below to do that:

Spectrum

Spectrum provides events and support for families of children with Autism, additional needs and disabilities. Based in Cambridge, they are rapidly expanding their reach, supporting families throughout the country.

A few weeks into opening Clip ‘n Climb Cambridge in 2016, I received this email from a customer:

"I would just like to extend my thanks to you and your team today for making our family outing such a happy one. Your staff took great care to ensure that my middle child who has severe autism, was well looked after during our visit. Outings can be quite challenging for us as a family but the Clip and Climb team made it very easy for us today."

I was really moved by this and it helped me realise we had a special place on our hands with how inclusive our climbing centre was. By coincidence, Justin who runs Spectrum, got in touch that week to introduce himself and we quickly made his charity the main one we support as a centre, gifting them a climbing session every month, plus getting involved in various fundraising events such as climbing the equivalent height of the Three Peaks and having several 20 stone lycra clad wrestlers join in one of their climbing sessions!

Donate through my Spectrum Just Giving Page

Find out more about Spectrum

MacIntyre

MacIntyre provides learning, support and care for more than 1,200 children, young people and adults who have a learning disability and / or autism, throughout the country.

I got to know the charity at the end of 2020, as they’re run from Milton Keynes. I was excited about lots of ways our new Climb Quest centre could help support them, from running sessions for the children and young people they support, including using our special hoists for those with physical disabilities, to hosting a fundraising challenge where their supporters could climb the equivalent height of Ben Nevis at the centre. At the time of writing this in mid-January in lockdown, I’m gutted we can’t kick this off straight away, and so I thought the funds you can help me raise for them with this challenge can help support them instead.

Donate through my MacIntyre Just Giving Page

Find out more about MacIntyre

Follow my progress

I’ve signed up to a virtual tracker for the challenge – click here to visit the challenge page and search Chris Walthew to see my progress .

Check out my Facebook page for updates on how I’m getting on. Get in touch if you want me to give you a shout out when I virtually pass anywhere that’s special to you – I’ll be going through my home county of Devon, my sister and mum in Manchester, and my old university in Lancaster, to name a few places on the route.

How much should I donate?

The distance from Land’s End to John O’Groats is 874 miles, so why don’t you sponsor me in pence per mile?

1p = £8.74

2p = £17.48

5p = £43.70

10p = £87.40

Donations of £100 or more are also acceptable!