Grange man raises nearly £1,000 for Prostate Cancer in 630-mile walk

Chris Martin, from Grange, was originally only raising money for growing what he called ‘a dodgy 1970s Mexican moustache’ for Prostate Cancer UK's 'Movember' campaign, in honour of his Dad, who sadly passed away from the disease.

However, the 65-year-old decided on also setting himself the challenge of walking 21 miles every day for 29 days last month – the equivalent of accumulating 1.2 million steps.

He said he had always wanted to do the 1,014 km South West Coastal Path walk from Minehead to Poole Harbour in Dorset, but that task proved to be a little too difficult to organise, so he decided he would accumulate the miles closer to home.

And Chris is no stranger to long distance walks having virtually walked 838 miles during the COVID-19 lockdown - the distance from Lands End to John O Groats.

“I thought I couldn’t ask people to sponsor me just because I wasn’t shaving, so I decided to sort my own fundraising walk out,” he said.

“My wife Maria said I looked like Ben Stiller’s character out of Dodgeball.

“I wanted one rest day and I thought I might as well have that day at the end, so I could have a few beers in my local pub when I finished.

"I appreciate the help of Tracy from the Keg and Kitchen who has helped me immensely in my fundraising efforts."

“There were a few icy mornings and it got tougher and tougher to get out of bed. I only had one day where I had to cut short because of Storm Debi.

“I did a lot of walking around Grange, Cartmel, Flukeborough, Barrow, Carnforth and Lancaster, as well as in Blackpool and Fleetwood."

Chris has so far raised £975 of his £1,000 target.

He says he will be back walking in the spring as he prepares for the Camino de Santiago – a 600-mile walk in France and Spain.

If you would like to sponsor Chris for his amazing achievement, you can do so by clicking here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/south-west-coast-path-51825.