I CAN is marking  125 years of helping vulnerable children this year.  To do my bit as a 125 Champion, I am doing something special:  walking across the treacherous sands of Morecambe Bay.

At low tide the glittering sands surprise you from summits in the southern Lake District, and you catch tantalising glimpses of them from train windows on the West Coast Mainline .  On a sunny day they look seductively inviting, stretching out mile after mile of flat gleaming sands, attracting sea birds by the thousands. 

But don’t be fooled. Morecambe Bay is notorious for its ‘sucking sands’ and fast moving  tides, which come in ‘as fast as a horse can run’.

I have wanted to trek across the sand for years, ever since I first stood on a Lakeland peak watching the Bay in the middle distance. So, to celebrate I CAN’s 125 birthday I am planning – with the help of a Morecambe Bay guide – to give the famous quicksand a very wide berth, and ford (or swim?) the waist deep tidal streams, and make my way across the Bay. Assuming we get the timing right, I’ll be able to stand safely on shore watching the tide race in to obliterate my tracks.

I am hoping that you will celebrate with me and with I CAN in sponsoring my Morecambe Bay walk.