We’d like to express a huge CONGRATULATIONS and THANK YOU to Martin Tapley who took on the Coast 2 Coast 190 mile walk and raised a fantastic £1,024.54 for our charity.
Martin Tapley is Director at TaxAssist Accountant, one of our amazing corporate sponsors. He wanted to challenge himself and decided to walk a LONG scenic route across our beautiful countryside. The Coast 2 Coast walk commenced at St. Bees in West Cumbria on the shores of the Irish Sea, trekking through the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors including Glaisdale, Egton Bridge and Grosmont, and finished in North East Yorkshire in Robin Hoods Bay.
We’re delighted to capture some of Martin’s experience and here is what he kindly shared.
‘It has been an absolute pleasure to be able to play a part in raising funds for Round Table Children’s Wish. One of the most rewarding things for me has been the number of messages from donors on the JustGiving website that refer to what an outstanding service and support RTCW provide. How true.
The walk itself was immensely satisfying and I was truly blessed with astonishingly good, warm and predominantly dry weather. Just a single day out of 15 where the heaven’s opened and the wind’s went really crazy, just as a group of us reached a mountain peak in the Lake District – but how terrible if I had missed out on experiencing at least one day like this!
My primary motivation for attempting the Coast 2 Coast was simply wanting to avoid getting to a stage later in life and regretting never having got round to doing it!! That is no longer a threat! But I think it is increasingly likely that my wife, Liz, and I will do a lot of distance walking when we (hopefully) retire and sell our business in a couple of years time.
You asked about mental and physical preparation. For 6 days my feet were completely unblemished and I thought I had handled foot management perfectly. When two big blisters formed on day 7 I had a couple of days scoring my feet 2/10 and genuinely walked with an anxiety that I might have to call it a day – which had never really occurred to me when I set off. Then the feet improved to 4/10 for a couple of days and the storm was weathered!
Mentally it was simply wonderful to have 15 days where everything became based about where one would be walking to that day. Hours and hours and hours of walking and meeting fellow C2C’ers and the evening experience of heading for a new pub, with map in hand to recky what would be coming up the next day. Even now (5-6 weeks back) I find myself having a quick look at those maps and reliving that trail. I could happily live this way for months at a time!
Everyone at Round Table Children’s Wish is delighted with Martin’s incredible effort. The funds raised will help grant some spectacular handcrafted wishes which will make such a positive difference to the health and wellbeing of our wish children and young adults. Thank you again to Martin for all your support and everyone who kindly donated.
