Step
towards a Country Free from Meningitis B
Morpeth to Bournemouth
Saturday 27th September - Sunday 19th October 2003
Early start Saturday 18th October
heading for ASDA,Totton nr. Southampton
for the penultimate leg of the 2003 fund
raising walk for Meningitis Research. Ray and I are joining the
walk for the last two days but Steve x 2 ( Dayman & Fear) have
been walking
every day since Mid September. They started in Morpeth,
Northumberland heading South visiting Towns and Villages whose
initial letters spell MENINGITIS B and by the end of the walk will
have covered some 465 miles on what is left of their trainers. Our
contribution is two days of 17 miles – seems kind of lame---oops
poor choice of words.
We picked up
Fran and Gemma at Chichester and arrived at ASDA in good time for
a McD breakfast and start at 9am. Lynn, Larry and Jill were
already there and we set off some 20 strong in glorious sunshine
with Lynn setting the pace. West through the New Forest towards
lunch at Lyndhurst collecting buckets deployed in our rolling
roadblock.
After lunch,
onwards through Brockenhurst to Lymington for an overnight stop.
Lymington’s a happening place on Saturday evening so it was
difficult to get everyone together for a meal but a good number of
us descended on ASK for an entertaining repast.
Sunday am. We
were some 30 in number and were seen off by the Lady Mayor of
Lymington who started the days collection and wished us every
success for the walk. Heading west towards Somerford (not
Somerfield) for lunch the hardcore bucket wielders are still
walking backwards in the centre of the road to make it that little
bit easier for the road users to part with their money. Throughout
the walk regular brief stops are needed to count the money
collected at each licensed street collection boundary. The
counting from all the collection buckets is done on the move in
the vehicles as we walked.
The local
Constabulary of Bournemouth tried to make their presence felt
after some rather enthusiastic mugging----collecting but Steves
determination and “Best behaviour lads” instructions persuaded
them to let us continue and then round the corner it was “Back to
work lads”!!
We arrived at
The Cumberland Hotel in Bournemouth at around 4pm to be welcomed
by the Lady Mayor and local MP. The walk had raised an impressive
£75k for Meningitis
Research of which we have contributed some £1000 from the generous
sponsorship of our friends and relatives.
For the
record Ray suffered no ill effects that a pint of lager and a bag
o chips couldn’t cure and my blisters were history the next day!
Review By
Chris Smith.
Here are some pictures taken
of the final stages of the Walk
Please click on the thumb nail images to
enlarge the picture
Contact the Fundraising Office on 0117 373 73 73
or e-mail
fundraising@spencerdayman.org.uk |
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