Hello and welcome to our Just Giving page - Myself and the team are raising funds for the NHS and Mental Health charities through our fundraising project Walking And Talking Charity Hikes (WATCH). The WATCH group will be fundraising over the next 12 months culminating with the group climbing Kilimanjaro in 2022 - Covid has scuppered our plans for 2021.

Follow the team on Twitter @walkingsbrill, Instagram @walkingsbrilliant and www.walkingsbrilliant.com

Having recently retired from the sporting world I found the day to day structure removed from my daily routine and this change was impacting on my mental well-being. I quickly realised that I needed to bring some structure and focus back in to my life and started walking in the countryside near to my home town Barnsley.

I shared my new found release with some light hearted videos via "big Norms walks" on my Twitter @bignorms and with the strap line #walkingsbrilliant, #mintonious, #mintabulous.... the messages I received back proved I wasn't alone and the walking videos were helping so many people.

After an informal chat with Jon Parkin and Darrell Yardley about my ‘Big Norm’s Walks’ and Dean Windass’s ‘Bed Made, Pillows on Top’ Twitter posts the conversation turned to what we could do to raise awareness and some much needed funds

“So, why don’t we pull a team together, combine both and have a proper goal? let’s climb that big hill in Africa and have a chat on the way up!” – The challenge had been born.

The idea was then sounded out with Deano and it flourished into a full-blown challenge. Chris Kirkland, Steve Howey, Nigel Jemson, Chris Brown, Paul Smith (ex-Sheff Wed physio), Simon Jordan, Leon McKenzie, Darren Farley and Liverpool Foundation have all committed to the fundraising challenge from the football world.

The team will also be made up of people from various walks of life including Gary Marshall, Allan Howcroft, Craig Morley, Lea Roberts, Chris Brown and Matty from 'Undr the Cosh' podcast, Jake Dunnicliff, Kerry Windass, Nick Hegley, Mark Davis and a few more who are yet to confirm.

As you can see from the videos above we have some great support thanks to Steve Howey and Chris Kirkland so if you could spare a few pounds to our fundraising it would be greatly appreciated.