A WOMAN is walking 550 kilometres to raise funds for a food bank.

Ann May is walking from the Italian city of Florence, located in the Tuscany region of Italy, to the capital city of Rome on the St Francis Way; a distance of 550 km, or roughly 342 miles.

Ann is walking this distance to raise money for the Andover Food Bank; her target is £1,500 and, at time of writing, she has raised £1,030, with an estimated additional £152.50 from Gift Aid.

Ann said that she chose to raise funds for the foodbank due to the “current economic situation.”

Ann said: “It’s pretty tough times for everybody, with the price of food and everything going up.

“It’s a worthy cause and it’s a local cause.”

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The St Francis Way connects places of significance in the life of St Frances of Assisi; Ann started her journey on May 2 in Florence and estimates that she will reach the finish line in Rome on May 28.

An experienced walker, Ann has previously completed several other pilgrimage walks, including the Le Puy route, which takes walkers from Le Puy to the Pyrenees mountains and spans a distance of 760km, and the Spanish Camino to Santiago de Compostela, which is 800 km long.

However, this is Ann’s first pilgrimage since the pandemic began and the UK went into lockdown.

Ann said that The St Francis Way is more difficult than her prior pilgrimage walks, mostly due to how mountainous the terrain is.

Despite this, she said that she would experience “no hesitation” in doing another sponsored walk for charity, saying: “It’s always worthwhile because you meet people along the way, and you tell them why you’re doing it and some people want to contribute.

“I think it just triggers the goodness in people, really.”

Ann said that her favourite part of her walk so far has been the walk to La Verna, which, despite muddy conditions and a harsh climb to reach, she called “a beautiful place”.

“It was tough, just in terms of the weather it was raining, it was miserable, but we had lots of laughs along the way.”

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Ann said that reaching the fundraising target for the foodbank “would be great”.

She added: “It’s just a worthwhile cause.”

Andover Foodbank was founded in 2006; a member of the Trussell Trust, the foodbank estimates that it fed 5,600 people in the Test Valley in 2020.

To learn more about Ann, as well as donate to her campaign and see updates on her journey, visit https://donate.giveasyoulive.com/fundraising/way-of-st-francis.

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