Two University of Sunderland graduates have taken on a 120-mile walk over six days to raise money for the Samaritans.
Kai Valentine and Hayden Beckett are walking from Blackpool Tower to the Angel of the North, with the aim of raising £1,000 for the mental health charity. They have been walking since Monday, having covered Blackpool Tower to Barnard Castle so far and are bedding down each night in their tent.
Thankfully for the pair, they missed the worst of the torrential rain that hit our region on Thursday afternoon. Kai, 25, and Hayden, 26, met at the University of Sunderland and started up a late night phone in, The Bedtime Babble On, on the University's Spark Radio in 2020, with the aim of being a listening ear and friend for those isolated or struggling during the pandemic.
Kai said: "I personally spent the pandemic living on my own and there was a 12-week period of not being able to see anyone. We realise the importance of late night radio and what it can do for local communities in terms of bringing people together who maybe aren't able to speak to anyone else during the day.
Both Kai and Hayden that the Samaritans have been really close to their lives, with them ending their show with: "Call the Samaritans, there's always someone there to listen." And Kai had to take his own advice last year, having had to deal with family bereavements following 18 months of lockdowns.
He said: "I realised I was really struggling around September or October last year and realised I needed someone to chat to. I called Samaritans about how I was feeling about bereavement because I realised I needed to do the thing that I'd been telling everyone else to do for the year and a half before it - we needed to raise awareness for such a vital, vital thing that's saving people's lives.
The pair feel that their aim of £1,000 is a "realistic" target, but say that they started planning and setting this before the cost of living crisis kicked in. Despite that, they have achieved their target at the time of writing, with around £500 of that coming in since they started the walk and posted updates of their progress on social media.
The walk is Kai's third to raise money for charity, after he previously raised money for Action for Pulmonary Fibrosis in memory of his dad in 2019, and again in aid of Bodyslams for Cancer in 2020. It is Hayden's first, and though he's enjoyed it, there are times that he has found it quite tough walking approximately 20 miles a day.
Hayden said: "It's a whole lot tougher than you realise when you're actually doing it. You look at the map of the walk you've got to do on the morning and think, that's alright, it's not such a long distance, but it really takes a toll mentally and physically, your muscles get really sore after a few days."
And both are keen to stress that while the walk is an important challenge, pushing beyond physical and mental limits does more harm than good. Kai added: "I've done charity walks previously where I've pushed myself past that mental limit, and it makes you worse in the long run.
"We've organised this one a bit better, we've thought about our true limits and we're averaging 20 miles a day which is still a lot. What I've learned from my previous walks is if you need to stop for your own physical and mental wellbeing, stop.
"I'd never push myself forward more than I physically could anymore because after the last walk I spent more on chiropractors than I ended up fundraising for! It doesn't matter how long it takes, we'll just waddle along and see how long it takes."
Despite tackling physical and mental exhaustion, both have been cheered by the people that they've met along the way, with one campsite owner even letting them stay for free after finding about their walk through social media.
Kai added: "You sometimes feel, especially over the last couple of years, is everyone just miserable now? But honestly, the people we've met have been so kind and generous. We bumped into a couple from Gateshead in the middle of Hawes just outside Lancaster, and the woman's sister was a Samaritan in Newcastle and she was so thankful we were doing this walk.
"And just last night, a lovely lady in a caravan came over for a chat with us to check that we were alright and if we needed any first aid or a cup of tea. She came over with £8.50 in shrapnel as it was all she had in her pocket but she said she wished she could give us more.
"We've walked through Lancashire, Yorkshire and now into the North East and people are just nice up here."
Kai and Hayden expect to arrive at the Angel of the North some time on Saturday afternoon or evening, starting their final day from Bishop Auckland - where they're upgrading their tent to a Premier Inn. To find out more about Kai and Hayden's walk and to donate to Samaritans, click here.
Have you ever done a challenge for charity? Let us know!
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