This summer I will be hiking from Weston Park, Sheffield to Tarporley, Cheshire, in one go. This is to raise funds for the Richard Pover Mechanical Engineering scholarship.

This is a 60 mile journey and I will complete it within 24 hours, solo, on foot.

The dates I'm doing the hike over are: 

15th - 16th July

Richard, AKA Po, was a good friend of mine at Uni. We met in our first days as students at Sheffield, and had the luck to be founding members of a close group of friends which still endures today. Po was a very likeable and quietly confident guy, with the naturally calm and positive demeanour to which many of us can only aspire. 

Very sadly Po passed away in 2013 following a 19 month battle with cancer. The courage and stoicism with which Po faced his horrifically unfair situation was both humbling and inspirational. I never heard him complain once. 

In the years since, Richard's family have worked hard to establish the Richard Pover Mechanical Engineering Scholarship. This is an annual scholarship payment awarded to a high achieving A Level student for every year of study at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Sheffield. This scholarship encourages applications from the most talented students who may have otherwise ruled out attending uni for financial reasons. 

The scholarship requires constant financial support to maintain, and as such I want to do my bit to contribute towards it. 

My Uni friends originally raised money in Po's memory in 2014 by attempting a walk from Sheffield to Tarporley. Unfortunately I couldn't join in with them at the time. Even though their attempt ended with them hopelessly lost and hallucinating on a bench near Holmes Chapel, I was still gutted to have missed out and I have intended to make up for it ever since. That time has now come. 

Any donations are hugely appreciated by myself, Po's family, and the University.

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