A Group of intrepid fundraisers braved the snow and ice of the British winter to raise almost £2,000 for Globalteer’s Siem Reap-based Cambodia Kids project.
The team of four, aged from 45 to 52, and including two former Globalteer volunteers had decided to undertake what they thought would be a “moderate but not too challenging” 13 mile sponsored walk. But they hadn’t banked on the weather taking an arctic turn just days before
they were due to do the walk.
With heavy snow and plummeting temperatures, concerned friends and family tried to talk them out of it, but by the time the date of the walk arrived they had already received over £1,500 in sponsorship pledges.
“We had been very public about our plans through things like Facebook, and through a training blog that we set up, and had even called it a ‘half marathon’ to make it sound a bit more challenging. So we could hardly cancel the event because of a bit of weather” explained one of the walkers.
The route of the walk followed the Wey Navigation Canal from Guildford to Weybridge in Surrey. Much of it was through open fields and thanks to the weather conditions the planned four or five hour stroll turned into a 7 hour battle with the elements.
“The snow was deep, the paths were slippery and temperatures were sub-zero all the way”, said one of the four walkers, “but worst of all, was having to do the last two hours in the pitch dark as it had taken us so much longer than we expected!”
Tired, cold and blistered, the team were greeted at the end of the walk with a round of applause and pints of very welcome ale at their aptly named local pub, The British Volunteer. The total amount of money they raised was £1936.
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