What’s harder than walking 43 miles in 30 hours? Trying to
get 50 Wiganers and a Glaswegian to walk 43 miles in 30 hours perhaps? Sorting out the transport, logistics, fund raising and co-ordinating timings, and numbers isn’t easy at the best of times, thankfully I’ve got some brilliant help this year. Needless to say I’ve had no time to do any training. I’ve also got persistent backache, toothache and I’m still possibly not over COVID given my inability to smell a pie shop when I’m in it, let alone from 100 yards away.

But here we are. This will be the 4^th walk I have helped to organise, if we included the COVID cancelled one to Barnsley in March
2020. Now THAT might have been interesting, given what has happened since between the two clubs!! It still raised over £10k however, as a few of us did it “virtually” and we can add this to the £36k raised at each of Fleetwood and Leeds to put the running total at £82k for these events.

This year, due to fixtures, we are walking from Morecambe on Friday 18^th March to the DW Stadium, arriving on 19^th March in time for the game between the two clubs. It’s not as far as walking to Leeds, but we will be walking the furthest we have ever done in a single day:
29.3 miles, as we hobble from Morecambe’s Globe Stadium to the outskirts of Preston. No time for sleep, a little bit of time for refreshments but all for a great cause.

I’ve no idea how much this year will raise, and I am far from the most prolific fund raiser, what with me being a shy, quiet type. Even
if we raise half of what we did on the Leeds and Fleetwood walks, a cool £18k would be a brilliant sum and also put the total funds raised over the 4 years over the £100k mark. Clearly we’re not there yet, but to even be in with a shout of achieving that, is quite amazing and speaks volumes to the generosity of everyone who has donated in the past and is reading this now.

I am again putting myself through the pain of trying to herd 50 unruly cats and also, the actual pain in my legs, for this great cause.

So, please if you can briefly ease my angst and sponsor me, what little you can spare, it would mean the world to myself and Joseph and his
family.

Cheers

Martin Tarbuck

Joseph Michael Kendrick is 12 years old and has Non-Ketotic Hyperglycinemia, a rare genetic disorder that affects one in 60,000 new-borns. The condition is so serious that less than 500 people in the world are living with it. Joseph’s Goal has been set up to raise funds and awareness into NKH.