John O’Groats to Land’s End Walking Challenge

I have always wanted to take on a challenge like this and have always been a keen walker, so when mum passed with Dementia last year, I thought I would look to combine the two and embark upon a challenge to walk from John O’Groats to Land’s End unaided and help raise thousands of pounds for The Willows Dementia Hub in Rochdale.

My mum Kathleen Smith lived with Dementia until she passed last year.  She attended ‘Comfort Days’ at The Willows Dementia Hub.

The Comfort Day service is a specialist day care service for people living with dementia.  They tailor activities to meet each patient’s needs and likes, and provide nutritious home cooked meals, and they encourage social interaction to prevent loneliness. We accept both self-funding referrals as well as adult care funding across two sites in Rochdale.

I realised that this isn’t for the faint hearted as the aggregated descent at John O’Groats is over 105,000 feet (32,000 meters) and at the age of 56, I estimate it will take me 4 months finishing at Land’s End with me walking over 1200 miles.

For company I was given a coconut from one of the people of where I work at Rochdale Council supporting homeless people, and I named the coconut Colin and took Colin with me on my journey. It felt good having a companion and someone to talk to…

My sleep overs were namely me in my tiny tent in the wilds with only cows and sheep for company, however if I need to, I could stay in hostels along the way and eat in any pubs that I find.  One of my biggest challenges is keeping my mobile phones battery packs alive as I will be using one for my maps and the other as my lifeline to the outside world.

I have always wanted to take on a challenge like this and have always been a keen walker, so when mum passed with Dementia last year, I thought I would look to combine the two and embark upon a challenge to walk from John O’Groats to Land’s End unaided and help raise thousands of pounds for The Willows Dementia Hub in Rochdale.

My mum Kathleen Smith lived with Dementia until she passed last year.  She attended ‘Comfort Days’ at The Willows Dementia Hub.

The Comfort Day service is a specialist day care service for people living with dementia.  They tailor activities to meet each patient’s needs and likes, and provide nutritious home cooked meals, and they encourage social interaction to prevent loneliness. We accept both self-funding referrals as well as adult care funding across two sites in Rochdale.

I realised that this isn’t for the faint hearted as the aggregated descent at John O’Groats is over 105,000 feet (32,000 meters) and at the age of 56, I estimate it will take me 4 months finishing at Land’s End with me walking over 1200 miles.

For company I was given a coconut from one of the people of where I work at Rochdale Council supporting homeless people, and I named the coconut Colin and took Colin with me on my journey. It felt good having a companion and someone to talk to…

My sleep overs were namely me in my tiny tent in the wilds with only cows and sheep for company, however if I need to, I could stay in hostels along the way and eat in any pubs that I find.  One of my biggest challenges is keeping my mobile phones battery packs alive as I will be using one for my maps and the other as my lifeline to the outside world.

On Friday 3^rd May, I flew out to Wick in Scotland and the following day I began my challenge by setting out on foot from John O’Groats and walking the long-distance route, known as the End, to End Trail that follows paths and tracks rather than roads and I will take to the hills wherever he can.  My estimation is it will take me 3 to 4 months, finishing at Land’s End in late August/ early September 2024.

My walk has been self-financed, included all the administration, travel, accommodation, food, drink, kit and all other expenses. Throughout my John O’Groats to Land’s End journey I will not be taking any motor transport of any kind, this includes ferries, bicycles and cars however I am planning on a couple of days break, part way through the walk and this will include someone collecting me from my last known point and taking me to access my overnight accommodation and then returning me back to the same last known point, so in other words I will be walking every step of the way on my challenge.

Starting off, my first five weeks were memorable for all the wrong reasons, the weather was ok at first, then the last three weeks of the five were the worst I have seen in a long time so with storms and heavy rains, at one point I thought my tent was going to collapse under the sheer volume of rainwater!  The weather got so bad that I had to stay at campsites (in my own tent) along the way so I could dry some of my kit off and try and get myself dry. Although I had planned to stay at B&B’s once a week, I changed my mind along the way, the more I spent time in my little tent, collecting my own thoughts and talking (more like ranting) at the nearby cows and, on more than one occasion, I woke to find my tent covered in slugs yet still it didn’t deter me from sleeping under canvas or giving up…

Colin the coconut was a great companion and listened to me ramble on and on and never answered me back or said I was ever wrong! He was also a great talking point for any other hikers and the public that I met along the way and made people smile and listened to my story of why I was doing the challenge, this raised lots of chats about dementia and how it affected loved ones and those around them.  Some of this was initially upsetting for me having to relive what we as a family had been through but after a while it felt quite a relief to talk to others about it and now I feel a lot better about how I feel about my Mum’s passing and those living with dementia.  It gave me courage to carry on the challenge and to make sure I raised some money for The Willows Dementia Hub to help other people living with dementia and support their families.

I thought I had got all the right equipment to keep the ticks away but over a few weeks I discovered that I had 5 stuck on me that I had to remove from under my skin with a pair of tweezers, I shudder now just thinking about them on me and removing them too.

So far, I have lost a stone in weight, this was unintentional as I was literally eating all the time, but I increased my daily miles from 15 as planned, to 20 and the weight just fell off.  However, this is not a diet I recommend!

One of my highlights, was meeting my son on my way, as he lives in Inverness, and another was me taking the wrong route by following for what I thought was the path (walking for over 30 minutes) only to realise it was a sheep trail and having to walk back to the start of the path; all I could do was laugh (if you don’t laugh you will cry).

The hardest part came when I hit the 1000-mile milestone, and my body and mind started saying enough is enough, but I had to power on through.  Thank goodness for the massive support I got from all my friends, my Mum smiling down at me and knowing that I was doing a worthy cause by raising money for The Willows Dementia Hub.

Having completed over 1200 miles and 2.5 million steps covering The Inverness Way, Great Glen Way, West Highlands Way, most of the Pennine Way, parts of the Peak District, Offers Dyke, parts of Devon and Cornwall and the John O’Groats Way. I did this challenge solo (self-supported) which means I carried all my equipment with me plus food and water, totalling 13kg in weight on my backpack. I ended up breaking 2 pairs of boots and getting waterlogged feet when it rained but I didn’t get a single blister. 

It felt ok at the time to walk an extra 5 miles a day and even thought at the time that I was stronger than I am, but this wasn’t the smartest move as when I finished my legs were battered and my feet extremely sore.  I had anticipated the walk would take me 4 months in total finishing in August/September 2024 but with the extra miles each day, I finally completed my challenge in 76 days, and I triumphantly arrived at Land’s End on Wednesday 17^th July 2024 at 16:14.

I have seen some of the most beautiful countryside the UK has to offer, met some of the most wonderful people, talked with complete strangers about people living with dementia and the Willows Dementia Hub Comfort Days that looked after my Mum.  I have walked through some of the most horrendous weather the sky threw at me, but I wouldn’t have change it for the world.  I did it, I really did it!! And I raised £3,700 for The Willows Dementia Hub and that money is going to be spent on helping families learn to manage and how to cope with loved ones living with dementia.  

All money raised will be directly donated to The Willows Dementia Hub in Rochdale.