Last year I took on a 25 km walk across London to support the British Heart Foundation in memory of my dad, Geoff. Thanks to everyone’s generosity, we raised £700.It was a brilliant day… until it wasn’t.

The first 5 km went exactly to my training pace.

The last 5 km? Let’s just say the 15‑minute walk to the train station afterwards took almost an hour, and I briefly considered phoning in a helicopter extraction.

But we did it — and it mattered.

When I used to gig in East London, I’d joke that my dad’s move from Walthamstow to the Sussex coast was a journey previously only made by Jack “the Hat” McVitie — and he did it in the boot of the Krays’ car.Last year I honoured the first 30 years of Dad’s life in London.

This year, I’m honouring the next 50 — the Sussex years.So I’m sticking with the 25 km distance… but giving myself a much tougher challenge.I’ll be walking from Eastbourne to Alfriston, taking on the hills, cliffs, and chalk paths of the South Downs — including the climb up Beachy Head. It’s beautiful, brutal, and very much not flat. A proper test.

Dad wasn’t just my hero — he was a real‑life hero.He served Sussex for decades through Sussex Police, first as a uniformed officer and later as a civilian operator. He worked all sorts of roles over the years, but my favourite will always be his part in the Y2K planning team.

I always say: if your toaster still worked on 1 January 2000, you can thank Geoff.

With his wife Cathy, they raised their children with love and wanted to bring up the best people they possibly could — finally getting it right on the last attempt.

More importantly, he was a devoted grandfather to our kids, and they adored him.

We know you can’t keep the people you love forever. But we would have given so much for even one more day with Dad. That’s why we’re committed to supporting the British Heart Foundation — to help other families have their extra day.

Heart and circulatory diseases are responsible for one in four deaths in the UK, taking over 150,000 lives every year.

Since 2019, deaths from heart disease among working‑age adults have risen by 18%, and more than 7.6 million people in the UK are now living with heart or circulatory conditions.

The British Heart Foundation funds life‑saving research into prevention, treatment, and early diagnosis — research that gives families more time, more memories, and more of those precious extra days.