So, How do you Plan a Walk?

Hi everyone. Hope you’re all well. I know last couple posts have been pretty heavy, so today I am going to lighten things up a bit!

The topic for today’s post is the planning of the walk – and it all started with a few too many bottles of wine! About a month after mum passed, dad, Emilia and I went over to Donna’s house (one of mum’s best friends) for dinner. Obviously, it was a very tough time, with it being so soon after mum passed away, so there were a lot of tears… which, naturally, led to a lot of wine!

In the midst of all the emotions, we had a crazy idea: why not fundraise for Pancreatic Cancer UK? Somehow, after a few glasses, we came up with the wild plan to walk from Billericay in Essex to Barry Island in Wales — a distance of around 200 miles! We were inspired by Gavin and Stacey, which was Mum’s favourite comfort show.

It felt right to honour mum by basing this walk around something that was special to her. After talking through all the logistics (and definitely a bit more wine!), we agreed the walk would take place over the course of 12 days. We figured Gavin and Stacey managed to travel there and back in a day all the time in the show, so how hard could it be?!  Let me tell you now: it was really hard!

We decided to finish the walk on 1st May, which would have been mum’s birthday as well as her wedding anniversary with dad. It felt like the perfect way to honour her, and it gave us so much determination to reach the end.

So, after rambling on about this plan for hours, we left Donna’s and went to sleep. By the time I woke up the next morning, dad had mapped out the entire route, planned the hotels we’d stay at every night, and even picked out which pubs we would finish at so we could all be motivated by a pint at the end! I was gobsmacked - I thought it was just drunken chatter, but clearly dad was serious.

We called Donna right away to show her the plan, and she was over the moon. By the end of the day, we’d texted all our friends and family, and we had a core team of 7 walkers committed to the full 12 days:

Me

Emilia (my sister)

My dad

Donna (mum’s bestie

Paola (my auntie and mum’s sister)

Kevin (my uncle and mum’s brother-in-law)

Francis (my uncle and mum’s brother)

Mum meant the absolute world to all of us. She had this incredible way of brightening even the darkest days and always made us laugh with her childlike sense of humour. She inspired us to be the best versions of ourselves, and we knew this walk was a way to honour her — and anyone else who’s lost someone to this horrible disease. So, we knew that this was a challenge we all wanted to take on for her.

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We had the team, the route, and the determination... now we just needed to tell people and start the fundraising. That’s where I came in. I was tasked with building the website. And, in true Rhiannon fashion, I stayed up all night trying to make it perfect . Dad and Emilia were really happy with it, and by January 2022, we launched the site. Huge thanks to Dad’s old company, Capital Dynamics, who supported us throughout the planning process. Their creative insight and constant encouragement meant the world to us. You can check out the website here: www.walkforpia.co.uk

Within just a month, we hit £50,000 - halfway to our then goal of £100,000. But as the donations kept pouring in, we quickly realized we could raise even more. We were overwhelmed with gratitude for everyone who donated, shared the website, or simply sent their support. We have the best support system in the world.

Next came the training. Mum was always the fit one in our family (she was a fitness instructor), so the thought of walking over 20 miles a day was extremely daunting. But in my next post, I’ll take you through the training process and share a few funny anecdotes from those months!

What £50,000 did for Pancreatic Cancer

To wrap up, I just want to say how incredible the walk was — truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It was the hardest but most rewarding thing we’ve ever done. So I am very glad we all decided to get drunk on a random night in November and organise this walk! I’m proud of myself, proud of my sister, dad, and every single person who joined us. What kept us going every day was mum. Her presence was felt every single step of the way, and that made it all worth it. For those 12 days, I felt closer to her than I ever had before.

Thanks for reading, chat soon!

With love,

Rhiannon