Monday, May 22, 2023

Charity trekker Gary battles on despite the blisters

* Gary plots his progress on a map of the Camino Trail.

Painfully blistered feet continued to trouble Llangollen's Gary Fletcher during the second week of his solo 500-mile charity walk to raise at least £10,000 for a local hospital’s specialist children’s unit. 

Gary Fletcher, 44, is trekking through France and Spain along the famous Camino De Santiago Pilgrim Trail.  

He reckons it will take him between six and eight weeks, dependent on the weather or any injuries he might sustain along the way. 

Early last week the blisters became so painful that he had to stop for a while to allow them to heal in the Spanish town of Estelle.

He mentions this on the Facebook page on which he is reporting his progress.

His sister Michaela comments on his post, sympathising with his pain and telling him to "keep rockin' on!"

Eventually back on the trail he had a stopover in the town of Hormilla, just outside Najera, towards the end of the week.

He mentions having a "nice clean room for 30 euros" in the local hotel and how the heat was increasing as he marched deeper into Spain.    

Gary, who recently sold his development site next to White Waters Hotel and is looking for another property in or around the town, spent weeks training for his foot-slogging marathon by climbing local hills and mountains and sweating it out in daily gym sessions. 

He also mounted an intensive publicity and social media campaign to gain the sponsorship from local businesses that he needs before he can set off on the challenge in aid of the pioneering Movement Centre at the Robert Jones & Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital in Gobowen.  

Before leaving he said: “I have wanted to do something to help children in our country for some time. With the centre I have found the perfect charity to support as it relies solely on donations and private fundraising to continue its work supporting children of all ages with mobility issues.” 

His regular posts on Facebook detail how he set off aboard the Eurostar from London bound for Paris on May 6.

* You can sponsor Gary at: https://www.gofundme.com/f/500-mile-walk-along-the-camino-santiago-trail 

No comments:

Post a Comment