Story
Each year, My walking partner Bob Hooks and myself, endeavor to take on a challenge walk for charity. This year, on behalf of MAG, we are taking on The Ebor Way.
Every hour, someone in the world is injured or killed by a landmine or unexploded bomb. 42% of these casualties are children. MAG aims to save lives and rebuild futures by removing and destroying landmines and unexploded bombs from communities affected by war and violence around the world. Because of their work, people can not only live safely, they can farm safe land, build new houses and schools and children can walk without fear. Please donate to my page and help to support a safer future for millions of people.
Landmines are a silent, insidious killer. They are cheap, easy to deploy, and utterly indiscriminate. A landmine doesnt care whether the pressure that detonates it is that of an enemy soldiers foot - or a child walking to school. Unexploded Ordnance, years after the end of a conflict, can look like an interesting toy object to a child. These devices dont think. They dont care that the pull on the trip-wire is from the mattock of a subsistance farmer trying to grow enough food for his family to survive.
These devices rot, they rust, the explosives inside them degrade. But they dont go away. Often, the degradation makes them more sensitive, more dangerous. Generations after the end of a conflict, they remain - waiting only to be touched...
The injuries caused by landmines, are often not fatal, but result in horrendous maiming. A typical anti-personnel mine will remove a foot or leg if stepped on. If a child, or a farmer, picks it up to move it from the field, the results are catastrophic wounds. Yet those who survive must carry on, trying to farm their land, teach their children, but now deaf, blinded, maimed. Could you tend your garden with no legs or a missing arm?
"We walk - Because WE can"
Myself and Bob are taking on The Ebor Way - a 75 mile walk between the North Yorkshire Moors and the Pennines, from Helmsley to Ilkley Moor. This is normally broken into five daily sections.
We intend to complete it in just 3 days! Thats 25 miles walking a day!
Every step we take on this walk - an estimated 1/3 of a million - we know will be safe from the risk of sudden catastrophic blast injury. For those living in conflict hit areas of the world, every step could be their last!
Support us by donating. Help us to help MAG make those steps as safe for others as they are for us.