Help 4 Heroes - Another Successful Walk
On the 29th August three members of the Royal Navy undertook 172 mile Charity walk in support of Help for Heroes from Cardiff to Wembley. All the walking was undertaken by PO “Gibbo” Gibbs and WTR Mikey Paddock and supported by CPO “JC” Cameron Wood in a Galaxy provided by Matt Brown from Essex Auto Group our event sponsors.
There route was broken down into 8 daily parts covering around 21-23 miles each day. Some mornings they started at 0600 and walked for 3 hours before retiring for a well deserved breakfast. We had a few close shaves along the way, including having to jump in to a bramble bush to avoid an old lady in Micra on the A48, and a close shave with the side of a lorry approaching Abingdon. On Sunday we encountered a deluge of rain this lead to renaming the walk “Wade to Wembley” walking through rain which was above Gibbo and Mikey boots.
Thank you to the kind lady in the Sugar Loaf pub who took all our soaking wet cloths home and washed and dried them for us.
During the walk we received fantastic support from everywhere we passed through with guest appearances from Nelson the Hero bear at GCHQ, raising £450, RAF Brize Norton raising £80, Northwood HQ raising £80 other collections around towns and cities and Holiday Inn foyer collecting around another £6000 in total.
The final total raised is fast approaching £36 000.
The highs of the walk were meeting Gary Speed and some of the Welsh players in Cardiff prior to the start of the walk, and also being pitch side at Wembley while the England team warmed up prior to the game.
On the final day they popped into Northwood and met their commander Admiral Sir Trevor Soar KCB OBE who wished them all well on the final leg of journey. Then on to Wembley where they met another famous Sir Trevor, This time Sir Trevor Brooking. Kick off saw them in the tunnel mingling with the players and talking to Fabio Capello. It was great feeling walking on to the pitch with the ball whilst receiving a standing ovation.
The planning is well underway for the next walk which is to start at Tedworth House and finish at Twickenham carrying the match ball for the Help for Heroes Rugby Fixture.
A big thank you to Matt Brown at our event sponsor Essex Auto Group for their continued support.
The three sailors who completed the walk are all members of the Royal navy and are proud to have flown the White Ensign very proudly from Cardiff to Wembley.
The galaxy amassed an amazing 2600 miles between picking it up in Colchester until we returned it to Essex Auto Group on the 7 September.
During this time we have stored our entire walking gear, 200 mars bars, 20 litres of water, a cool box, 5 police cones, 5 warning boards, hero bear which took up a lot of room, press packs, IT and video equipment, Cold and wet weather gear and of course 2 tired walkers from finish point back to the hotel.
If you wish to support the Help for Heroes charity please donate at:
WWW.BMYCHARITY.COM/WALKTOWEMBLEY
