21/10/2026
Here’s a little write up about a charity walk we’re heading out on this weekend.
It’s going to be wet and windy; maximum fun.
❤️💛💙🩵
Next up we have our incredible Anthony answering some questions ahead of the walk…..
If you would like to sponsor Anthony please click the link below ⬇️
https://www.peoplesfundraising.com/fundraising/ant-s-road-to-100k-walk
1) What made you decide to take part in the endurance walk?
Darren & Liz supported my brother Jonathan off the streets into sheltered accommodation and reconnected us after a 10 year estrangement. Jon struggled to come to terms with the su***de of our father Phil in 2009 and succumbed to mental health, addiction and eventually homelessness. Tragically, Jonathan also passed away from a brain haemorrhage six months after we were reunited in 2019, however, One Big Family gave me some extra time with my brother where we were able to reconnect and rebuild our relationship and right some wrongs, providing me with some incredible closure. I genuinely will never be able to thank One Big Family for what they gave to me and having raised £100,000 for a variety of charities since 2006, I now focus my fundraising efforts exclusively in their direction.
2) How is training going?
Training is going fine. It’s fine. I promise it’s fine. I’ve definitely done enough training so don’t even worry about it, no siree. Nuh uh. OK, so, in reality the most I’ve walked is 16km in preparation, but I’ve increased the frequency of the walking as the day draws closer. I’ve done the Soup To Soup twice before, so I know more of what to expect and I also know that nothing can really fully prepare you for the sleep depravation part of the walk.
3) What are you most looking forward to?
Picture the scene. It’s cold and drizzly, everyone’s flagging, we’ve been walking for 8 hours, the sun is coming up. We crest a hill and below we see the sweet sweet golden arches of Greenhithe McDonalds. Sure, there are zero nutrients and it’s full of fat and who knows what else, but for that one morning, buying a double sausage and egg McMuffin meal with an extra hash brown and an orange juice (because healthy), biting the ends off one of the hash browns and placing it confidently into the centre of the McMuffin, creating a Big Mac Esque Breakfast Burger the likes of which have never seen the likes of which. Honestly, the two times I’ve done the walk; that McDonalds is the best bit.
But then there’s also the hyper-emotional part of treating the walk as a pilgrimage in memory of my brother, thinking about him on the way, explaining our story to the other walkers, and getting a chance to really sit in the grief and remember who he was, and his part in making me who I am today. Walking past the signs for Wainscott where we grew up, down into Strood where we spent our teenage years and then into the Medway towns proper where both of us spent our time, shared memories in key locations. The walk takes us past the SCOPE shop which was one of Jonathans most permanent early living situations; I’d been allowed to stay over a few times, it was the first time I’d ever seen anyone smoke he**in. I was 14. Then after the emotional climax of the walk and the medal presentation, we walk back up to the car, past Apni Haweli where my dad took his own life in 2009. I’m not a super spiritual person, but these little anchors from the past that I can nod to in acknowledgement as I walk past them really keep me grounded and focused and hyper aware that we are all of us but a few unfortunate decisions or events from being in the exact same situation and I will never take my life for granted as a result.
4) What are you least looking forward to?
Darren Shaw not understanding not only what a kilometre is, but also how far 50/60km is when you add all the 1kms together. I swear one year we got to Cobham on the walk he advertised as a 50km walk only for him to say: “oh, we’ve just hit 50km!”… there was 10km left to go 😐
The blisters the morning after; my god. Last year I had blisters ON TOP of my feet. How does that even work?
5) How will you keep motivated during the night?
I tend to think about my dad and brother to keep me motivated on the walk. I feel so incredibly lucky to be in a position where I’m fit and healthy enough to be able to do the walk, so that really helps me get along the route. The banter from the other walkers is also super helpful; just meeting new people and finding out more about them and their motiviations, and then catching up with walkers I know from previous walk. It’s cliché but we really are One Big Family for one night, all pulling together in the same direction to help out as much as we can. It’s important to me to remember that I am choosing to undertake this walk and to be out in the cold and damp overnight, there are so many thousands of people in the UK who have no choice in the matter, and that’s what we’re walking for.
I’m a singer songwriter, I write songs to help me process trauma and regulate my mental health and I wrote a song called Home when Jonathan passed away. The lyrics just completely fell out of me in around 10 minutes and it was a while before I actually analysed what they meant to me. At the end of each verse I ask a rhetorical question:
i. Where do we belong?
ii. How did we get so old?
iii. What am I going to do?
And in all cases MY answer to those questions was “I’ll go home” and while I’m walking I try as hard as I can to remember how lucky and privileged I am that I am able to go home and that the concept of home isn’t alien to me as it was to my brother. Jonathan was paraplegic after being in a car crash in 1999 and another lyric from this song is: “They should try walking in your shoes”, because the judgement of others was something that really affected Jonathan’s troubled life. I walk this walk in memory of him and I walk it because he couldn’t.
