FOUR friends planning to hike 25 miles to raise cash for charity are hoping to encourage others to take part in a socially distanced event on Saturday, June 27.
Barnard Castle resident Mike Dodgson will join friends Rory Edwards, Jos Lewandowski and Mark Patterson to follow the Teesdale Way from Barnard Castle to Middleton-in-Teesdale and back to rack up miles and money for the Maia Mouse Foundation’s Walk the World campaign, which launched last month.
The foundation, of which Mr Dodgson is a trustee, was set up Gemma and Joe Baum, in memory of their daughter Maia Olivia Baum who lost her battle with a rare condition in 2016, just before her first birthday.
Before her death the couple made sure Maia enjoyed as many experiences as possible and the foundation now provides grants to help families of children with life-limiting condition so they too can make magic memories.
The Walk the World aims to get people to walk a combined 50 million steps, covering 25,000 miles, donating £1 for every mile walked.
Mr Dodgson said: “Since the campaign launched, we have been logging our miles for the charity and we just thought it would be great if we could get a big lump done so we came up with the route to Middleton. Our target is to have 40 people walk the route together, but distanced. If we could get 40 people involved then that is 1,000 miles in one day for the foundation.
“I put a post on social media and have called it Gather 40 and we’ve had lots of response and I think there are already about 30 people who want to take part, which is great.
“We’re planning on meeting at Scar Top in Barnard Castle at about 8am because it’s such a big space and then we will set off from there at intervals and we’ll be making sure we adhere to all the Government’s social distancing rules.”
Visit www.maiamousefoundation.org.uk
