Alastair’s story: Walk towards hope
Date Posted: Aug 13, 2024.
"I was looking for a way to play a part in helping people and the Walk Towards Hope felt like an answer. I was saying my evening prayers, thinking about how I could help people, came down and opened my phone and an ad was right there. I felt that I’d sort of been directed to get involved.
I worked out that I’d need to cover eight miles using my days off each week to reach the target on Christmas eve. I find walking is a good opportunity for reflection and thinking about things. It was a challenge to reach the 90 miles, but knowing I was raising money to help people spurred me on when my legs were tired, and wanting to honour the donations of people who supported me was part of that too.
I asked my friends and family to donate and they were really generous. I work as a fishmonger at Burnham Market, so I printed out a poster for the shop. I’d speak to people about what I was doing and they were really enthusiastic. I was nervous asking at first but I always had a positive response and people had questions for me and wanted to support a good cause.
Things are pretty tough for people at the moment and it’s been fairly tough for our family also. I think that experience makes you want to help other people who are less fortunate than yourselves. The strength of church communities gives me hope. Prayer is also a really strong thing and that gives me hope. I haven’t done any sort of fundraising before so the Walk Towards Hope was a new experience for me, I really enjoyed it and will definitely do something like this again.”
"I liked this idea of helping communities to meet the needs of local people. The support for people facing homelessness and refugees really inspired me. I liked the theme of walking the 90 miles like Mary and Joseph’s walk to Bethlehem."
