May 19, 2008...3:39 pm
Walked The Wight
Yesterday (Sunday) Hugh and I did Walk The Wight in aid of the Earl Mountbatten Hospice. I have done the full route of at least seven times, but it was Hugh’s first go at this marathon-length charity walk, so we got up nice and early, caught a 6.15am bus to the start and actually began our walk at 6.40am.
I have been involved with the walk since its early years and remember the founders Bill Bradley and Frank Stevens very well. They designed the walk as being a good day out and a chance to socialise and see fantastic Island views that you might not normally see, so I had impressed on Hugh before we began that it was not a race.
About three-quarters of a mile into the walk his phone went off and it was his younger sister Dawn, who told us they were about a mile ahead of us, having begun slightly earlier than we did.
So we upped our pace, caught them about six miles into the walk, passed Dawn, her partner Derek and our super-fit family member Richard and went on to the end of the first half at Carisbrooke.
We did the 12.5miles from Bembridge to Carisbrooke in four hours and we were feeling fine, so we took a short lunch break.
Much to our surprise, we saw Richard leave ahead of us with his son, Adam, who had joined him for the second half from Carisbrooke to Alum Bay.
We kept on at a steady three miles an hour over the hills of West Wight, but we never saw Richard and Adam and we were about three miles from the finish when Hugh’s phone rang and it was Adam to say he had left his dad behind (Adam is a very sensible teenager so this is okay!)
We went through the Alum Bay finish at 3.50pm - some nine hours and ten minutes after we started the 26.5 mile walk and we were really chuffed - especially when we discovered that Hugh was the first member of his family to get to the end!
Richard finished in a bit later, all the other family members completed the walk too and everyone agreed they had a great time.
This year’s walk was particularly amazing because they topped 10,000 walkers for the first time. I can remember the 2000 walk particularly well - Bill died in September 1999 and his family were keen to see 2,000 walkers in 2000, which was achieved. But as Frank and I stood at the start (then at Bembridge School) we knew it was no longer just a little walk for friends and families and the event would never be quite the same again. What would Bill have thought if he had seen the 10,000 walkers who streamed across the length of the Island this year?
But it’s all in a very good cause and I felt more than a bit emotional as I thought of my late friends and acquaintances who have been cared for by the hospice, particularly Jeremy, who died last autumn and whose memory we were walking in this year.
I also saw several people whom I know have lost family members to cancer and other terminal illnesses within the past year and all were coming through the finish with big smiles on their faces - even though they had aching legs and blisters.
Doing a walk is a massive achievement and although I may be sore for a few days, it will soon pass and my life will return to normal - while many of those patients who find themselves being cared for by the hospice will find their lives will never be quite the same again.
To me, doing Walk The Wight puts everything into perspective. Long live this truly inspirational event and long may people continue to support it - and the hospice.
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