Off for a walk to aid charities

Ian Tilbury and Garry Gordon, from Overton, will be walking the more than 220-mile long walk from their village to Paris for the benefit of causes close to their hearts.

Ian will be stepping out in aid of Sebastian’s Action Trust, which helps families throughout the UK who have a child with a life-limiting or life-threatening illness, and Garry will be supporting Sepsis UK.

The idea for the giant walk came after Ian was speaking to Garry about a previous challenge he had done.

Ian said: “It was an off-the-cuff idea that I came up with after speaking about one of Garry’s previous walks. We were in the pub and I mentioned the idea of walking to Paris.

“A day or two later, Garry sent me a message to ask when we were going to do it, so we decided to sort it out.”

It was then the walking pair decided to look into the idea and start some light training.

Ian added: “We are inexperienced walkers, and have been doing some minor training to get ourselves ready, with walks of about 12 miles or so around Overton and the area.

“We wanted to do something really different and was a big challenge for the pair of us, to highlight the charities that we are fundraising for.

“We know the route, but we aren’t sure exactly what we might encounter on the way.”

The duo will walk for eight hours, and then have four hours of rest, and repeat.

The walk itself should take them four days, with the pair leaving Overton from the White Hart on April 13.

One of the difficulties of this schedule is that the pair cannot book hotels or accommodation in advance, and as a result, they will be taking a tent with them to sleep in.

Ian said: “It’s dawning on us now as we realise just how far it is to get there, but we are buzzing to get started and are really looking forward to getting started.

“It should be a great route and we aren’t going to let anything stop us.”

To support the pair’s fundraising efforts, go to uk.virginmoneygiving.com/IanTilbury.