About me and the journey.
Since my mid-teens, I have had a strong desire to do something socially rewarding and worthwhile, to help in raising significant sums of money for charitable causes whilst inspiring others to follow their dreams.Lots of people run marathons, go on sponsored walks etc. I wanted to do something more extreme, something that would represent a significant challenge both mentally and physically and demand massive levels of will power and fortitude, along with sacrifice, which ultimately would inspire and benefit 000’s of people.
Only 7 people in History have been verified as having walked around the World with my intention to be the Eighth.
Following completion of this amasing project, I would want to travel the length and breadth of the UK and further, by foot, sharing with Children in schools and communities, my experience. From this I would offer guidance and mentoring, for all who have personal goals and dreams that they want to achieve. Using technology I intend to set up an online support centre for children and young people to allow them to connect with a mentoring group made up of people like me, to aid and assist those individual’s, anytime, anyplace, anywhere.
I will, from my experience, produce personal journals, videos, photographs and record interviews conducted during my journey. Along with this I will be writing a book based on the characters and experiences I encounter, in a light hearted, fun, thought provoking and imagination nurturing manner, for young people between the ages of 5 and 8, for parents to purchase in either in paperback or digital form, with all proceeds again going to my chosen charities.
The walk will be supported by a website geared to daily reports, blogs and also links to social media pages, media groups all directing to My Virgin Money site to maintain the emphasis on raising money for both Cancer Research and Unicef.
My goal would be to complete this task within 3 years and six months or sooner walking 6 days a week with a target of 15 to 25 miles a day. I will start my journey by running the London Marathon on 26th April 2015 with my son and then leaving on the 1st May 2015 from London after a rest of 3 days with my anticipated route being to walk across Europe eventually arriving in Portugal in Sept/Oct 2015. Then to travel by plane to New York, in time to run the New York marathon, in November 2015.
The next Leg of the journey would be to walk across North America to Los Angeles taking approx. 7/8 months. From Los Angeles I would again travel by air to Sydney Australia and walk from there to Perth taking approx. 6/7 months. From Perth to Singapore, again, by plane. From Singapore I would walk through Southern Asia, through the Middle East to Cairo and then from Cairo back through Europe to London, taking approx. 22 months, with an anticipated finish on or around Aug/Sept 2018.
However should my journey go according to plan without to many hitches then ideally I would like to finish by again running the London Marathon in March/ April 2018. My chosen route (Yet to be finalised) is approx. 15,500 miles and will be supported with official records through witnessed photographs and statements to validate the journey from every town and city I pass through
.My Monetary objectives are clear and concise and are very simply, to raise £2,000,000 + for my chosen charities.