Hendon Football Club has been in my family for more than 60 years ever since my Dad chose, on a whim, to attend an FA Amateur Cup tie in January 1960 at Claremont Road against Wimbledon. It’s a bond that has survived a 13-year absence from North-West London and has now been passed on to a third generation with my children.

Throughout my 27-years of regular attendance at home and away matches, watching the Greens has provided me with many memories. Some have been happy, some sad. Others have given me nothing but anxiety whilst the occasional one has been slightly heartbreaking. Increasingly and crucially, in more recent years, watching football – and Hendon in particular – has provided me with a much-needed mental respite since my initial diagnosis of depression and more latterly, bi-polar disorder. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that watching Hendon has, in the past, saved my life.

Ever since moving into the club’s current home at Silver Jubilee Park in the summer of 2016, Hendon have been able to support a number of projects within the local community that have been run by Rob Morris and his team at SJP that have been set-up to support those that struggle with mental illness within the local community as well as playing a key role in making the London Borough of Brent a dementia-friendly borough. Seeing Silver Jubilee Park becoming a community hub that plays such a crucial and significant role in the lives of some of society’s most vulnerable people, has been a source of real pride for me, someone who has felt the benefits of football when coping with mental health issues.

I want to give something back and have decided to undertake a 147-mile walk in March 2022 across a week. Beginning on Saturday 19th March following Hendon’s home match with Yate Town, I will walk almost 150 miles culminating at Weston-super-Mare's Optima Stadium in good time for kick-off (and a pre-match beer, one hopes!) a week later. My target is to raise £2,500 that will go enable some of these brilliant projects to continue helping those in the club’s local community that really need it.

Over the next five months I will document my journey with a series of updates as I train and focus on some of the individual projects that are run by Silver Jubilee Park and supported by Hendon Football Club to see how the funds I raise will be used.

Please, follow me on my journey during the next five and a half months, and please, feel free to contribute whether financial if you’re able to, or simple words of encouragement, to keep me motivated during the looming dark winter as I embark on this hefty challenge.

To find out a little more, please watch this interview on the HFCTV YouTube channel