Phil On ... walking for Christian Aid
For the second year running, Christian Aid will be unable to do door-to-door envelope collections. For Christian Aid supporters in Staffordshire it also means no sponsored walk around Tittesworth reservoir. To give you an idea of the impact this is having, some £8.6 million was raised in 2018 during Christian Aid week. This resulted in support for 1.7 million people in 20 countries across the globe. Last year the sum raised was less than a quarter of this, at £2 million.
The 2020 Christian Aid week passed in a blur for me. Along with the entire UK population, I was more pre-occupied with adjusting to a lifestyle that saw me working from home and afforded no more than one hour local exercise per day. So this year, with less daunting restrictions in place and hopefully some light at the end of the Covid tunnel, I’ve decided to do a sponsored walk to re-address the situation. I am going to sponsor myself an amount equivalent for what I would normally have raised from local door to door collections over two years.
The question is, what walk to do? As a keen rambler I consulted the Long Distance Walkers Association and found an eminently appropriate ten mile walk near Rotherham called the Six Churches Walk. The idea is to visit six churches along the circular route. My plan is to do this walk with my wife on Friday 14 May. If you re-visit the web-site in a week or two, I’ll make sure to post some pictures to show how we got along.
Maybe you would like to consider doing your own walk to raise money for Christian Aid? If you need any inspiration for local walks, I have dozens of local walks in the 5-12+ mile range – all created over the last year when walks had to start/end near your home!