Coast to coast charity walk for Melksham team

A MELKSHAM fitness instructor and his  proteges recently walked the length of Hadrian’s Wall – 89 miles – raising over £3,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support.

DJ Hussey, who runs New Era Fitness in Bowerhill, joined eight of his clients to tackle the ancient structure that stretches from the West to East coast of England.

DJ took his team – Mark Hanman, Julie Davis, Judith Greenman, Amy Greenman,  Nick ‘Cookie’ Cook, Alison Johnson, Neil Johnson, and Aimée Hussey – on the mammoth walk after six months’ training.

DJ said, “I couldn’t be more proud to have been part of a team of such wonderful people, and want to shout about their achievements to the world!

“The journey couldn’t have been more rewarding; absolutely broken by day four, we pulled together and finished the walk at a final walking distance of just over 89 miles over the four days. We didn’t stop laughing from the first morning to the last night when we packed into our minibus to drive home.

“Each day we set off around 8am with the intention to walk almost continuously until around 6pm, covering an average of 20 miles each day.

“The first and last days were relatively flat and not a patch on days two and three, when we spent so much energy climbing up and traversing down the endless crags that make up the middle 30 mile portion of the trip. These were the most challenging days to say the least.

“Each night we had ‘Mark’s blister clinic’ back at base camp and were cooked and cared for by our sublime support crew who, quite honestly, we couldn’t have completed the walk without.

“It was then time for an early night ready for an early start getting very achy muscles warmed up and learning how to walk again around the many blisters covering our feet! We got through our fair share of blister plasters!

“We met a lot during training and we decided to make it a charity event to raise money and awareness for Macmillan Cancer Support; a charity really close to all of us in very different ways.

“We set our sights on raising around £1,000 for the charity and had our minds blown by the sheer volume of support we received from friends and family both locally, all over England and even from Europe and beyond!

“It was truly humbling to us and a real boost when things got tough after our first day. We were utterly blown away at lunch time on day four when we heard the news that we’d raised over £3,000!”

The team have so far raised £3,214.93 for Macmillan. To further contribute to their fundraising effort go to www.justgiving.com/hadrianswall2015.

Hadrian’s Wall was built almost 2,000 years ago and took roughly 15,000 Romans six years to build. Stretching 80 miles from the Solway Coast  to Wallsend, in places the wall reached 6m in height.