In answer to the question “why are you doing this?” The answer is simple- because my Dad asked me to!

Over Christmas 2022 my Dad (Peter Jinman) suddenly felt unwell with stomach pains, and over the next couple of weeks he underwent many tests and was told he had B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He underwent major surgery, followed by chemotherapy and was told that he should make a full recovery.

Chemotherapy took its toll on him and as he approached his last course of treatment we had to rush him into hospital as he had an infection. After a few days he started to develop other symptoms and we were told the cancer had unfortunately spread to his central nervous system.

He was moved to St Michaels hospice a day later where he and all of us in the family were met with great kindness and compassion. After the noise and bustle of the hospital I felt we could finally relax and breathe and focus on spending what little time we had left with him knowing he was being taken care of and receiving the best care possible.

While being cared for in the hospice Dad asked Mum and I to raise some money for the hospice and we asked how he wanted us to do this, he thought for a moment and said ‘dog walk with Lucy’ so we started thinking.

In May this year Lucy (because she now couldn’t say no, and who came up with the idea) Dave and I are going to walk the Herefordshire trail, 154.4miles in 10days. We felt that including dogs was a bit of a liability but we could challenge ourselves and walk a county that Dad worked in, loved and called his home while fulfilling what he had asked us to do- a walk to raise some money for St Michaels Hospice.