Marc, Steve, Stuart  & Ned are all friends, and either retired or serving police officers and have so far walked over 1000 miles raising awareness and much needed funds for ‘Greyhound Gap’, a charity who rescue and rehabilitate greyhounds and lurchers who are in danger of being put to sleep.

Greyhound Gap is run entirely by volunteers and has to constantly be raising money to keep going. At any one time they have approximately 80 dogs in their care, either in foster homes or in private kennels. Marc’s parents fostered greyhounds for the rescue, but more often than not, ended up adopting them until at one point they had 9 dogs!

Marc had a very close bond with Sandy, one of his parent’s dogs, who sadly passed away from osteosarcoma, and he wanted to do something in her memory to help other greyhounds. This is when “Walking the Beat” was born! Marc came up with the idea of walking the four Coast to Coast walks of Great Britain over a four year period. The walks have been totally self funded with all money raised going to Greyhound Gap, kennel fund. Their hope is to own their own kennels in the future. Each month between £5,000 to £7,000 is needed to pay for kenelling bills and vet bills, this is done by a huge army of dedicated volunteers. On top of that is the ongoing fund raising to try and raise enough money for a deposit for their own kennels.

This year, another member is joining the team. Harvey, Marc’s  9 year old stepson, who has been in training for many months to build up his stamina and endurance.

The big difference this year is that in the past they have set themselves punishing daily challenges to complete each walk in a shorter period than is usual. This year however the walk has been tailored to Harvey’s requirements,  the daily targets have been set to be a challenge for him in just the same way as the previous 4 challenges have been for the walkingthebeat team.

At 9 years old this will be just as big a challenge  for Harvey as Ireland was for the 3 guys. As such Harvey will have been in training for 6 months come the start of the walk and describes it as 100% nerve wracking but 100% excited!

Over the past 4 walks walkingthebeat have raised in excess of £15,500.00

On Sunday 23^rd August they arrive at Youlgreave YHA

Monday 24^th August via Bakewell and Elton to overnight at The Miners Standard  B&B in Winster

Tuesday 25^th August to Ilam Hall YHA

Wednesday 26^th August to Hartington YHA

Thursday 27^th August to Eyam YHA

Friday 28^th August to Castleton YHA

Saturday 29^th August to Hathersage YHA

Sunday 30^th August to Bakewell

 Harvey and Marc are hoping for support from many Greyhound Gap supporters along the way and welcome anyone who would like to go along to meet them or even walk a stretch of their journey with them

Follow the lads on their website  www.walkingthebeat.co.uk