A record number of participants, 286 in all (along with several 4-legged friends, some in CRY T-shirts or customised CRY neckerchiefs) took part in the 5th CRY Durham Riverside Walk on Saturday 4th October 2014. Since 2010 the Durham Walk has flourished with a record number taking part this year. Our thanks to everyone who could attend and make the day so special.
It was a greatly affecting sight to see the families and friends coming together to walk in memory of a young person, however many of the walkers were able to meet up with friends and CRY staff and volunteers. As in previous years, the event will have greatly helped to raise awareness of CRY’s ongoing work and help reduce the incidence of young sudden cardiac death.
The walk was attended by CRY staff Rebecca Zouvani, Fundraising Manager, and Cara MacMillan, Events Fundraiser. Sam Walker, Driver and Events Admin, a new member of CRY staff, kindly drove the CRY team and equipment/literature all the way from Surrey to Durham and back in the Beefy’s Foundation-branded CRY van.
The purchase of the “Beefy Van”, which is primarily used at CRY screening events, was made possible by a generous donation of £20,000 from Beefy’s Foundation. Beefy’s Foundation was set up by CRY’s Honorary President, Sir Ian Botham OBE, and currently supports 5 charities including CRY.
The day started off very wet but the wild weather had improved by the time the majority of walkers arrived at Durham Amateur Rowing Club for registration. Welcomed with a cuppa and bacon roll, laid on by the Club. Participants checked in, picked up a balloon and chatted amongst themselves whilst we waited for everyone to arrive. CRY staff, and photographer Doug Moody, took details and photographs for the local press. Due to the diligence of our supporters, the event enjoyed a great deal of local press coverage before and after the event – including articles in the Durham Times, Northern Echo and Teeside Evening Gazette.
The vast majority of people, some of whom have taken part every year (including the Anderson, Ber, Morland and Percival teams), took part in memory of a young person who they had tragically lost to young sudden cardiac death. This year participants were walking in memory of Matt Beadle, Kasia Ber, Stephen Carey, John Chapelhow, Ian and Andrew Cooper, Kevin De Silva, Ashley Goodwin, Dean Henderson, Ian Johnson, Eleanor Keeler, Stephen Lamb, Robert Lancaster, Stephanie McLean, Leona Mello, Levon Morland, Jennifer and David Paul, Kevin Paterson, Sara Pilkington, Craig Powell and Alex Smith. This year we also welcomed a team of 49 walking in memory of Christopher Britton and a team of 62 walking in memory of Robert Daniel Smith. Thank you.
Just before midday, once everyone had checked in, we assembled outside the Rowing Club. Rebecca Zouvani, CRY Fundraising Manager, made a short introductory speech to thank everyone for coming and introduced Steve Percival, who spoke about the walk and his support of CRY as well as some interesting facts about the number 5, this being the 5th year of the walk. He then introduced fitness instructor Carl Higgins, who not only took part in the walk, in memory of Kasia Ber, but also led a very entertaining and fun group warm-up. Last year Carl had to step in at the last minute when the designated fitness instructor was unable to attend. As one of the instigators of the walk, Jeff Morland, once again officially started the walk.
After all the photos had been taken, including press photographs, the walkers (with wheelchairs, buggies, toddlers and dogs in tow) set off on the walk, picking up bottles of donated Lucozade Sport, and water and cartons of orange juice on the way. Following the beautiful River Wear, walkers took in the magnificent view of Durham Cathedral which provides a stunning backdrop for the walk. Luckily, the weather had improved enough for the walkers to take advantage of the impressive views on the route. They were able to pick up water and a chocolate bar, kindly distributed by Jeff Morland and Joe Crow. CRY member of staff, Sam Walker, provided first aid cover this year.
Following the extensive landslide in 2013, the route was reduced to just over 5K in distance, but many of our supporters felt this was challenging enough!
Each walker was welcomed back to the Rowing Club by CRY volunteers Linda and Geoff Goodwin, who presented each walker with a certificate and a feedback form. Linda and Geoff had travelled all the way from Gloucestershire for the weekend to help out and be a part of the day. The Rowing Club kindly opened the bar and provided delicious panini and cakes for CRY staff, volunteers and the walkers on their return. Everyone seemed to enjoy the day and by the afternoon the weather had brightened up, enabling the walkers to relax outside with their food and drinks.
We would love to see everyone again next year, CRY’s 20th anniversary year, and we hope to see more new faces again. We are hoping to hold the event on the 3rd or 4th of October next year, so please provisionally keep this weekend free if you are interested in attending. If you would like to know when a date has been confirmed for 2015 please email [email protected].
We never forget that most of the walkers who take part in the Durham Riverside Walk do so for a very personal reason – and all of us at CRY appreciate their tremendous effort and courage in taking part.
We are also very grateful to the following companies and organisations for their support of this event.
o Durham Amateur Rowing Club for providing a great venue at a discount, year after year and to Mark Bell and his team for making us so welcome.
o Northumbrian Water for kindly donating bottles of water since 2010.
o Lucozade Ribena Suntory for kindly donating Lucozade Sport drinks for the walkers.
o Radflex for donating chocolate bars. This donation is secured each year by David (Joe) Crow.
o Andy Hughes and the John Duck Pub, Claypath, Durham, for holding a party after the event, featuring Jeff Morland and Steve Percival’s band ‘Barkin’ Billy and The Scrapyard Dogs’ and laying on a free buffet for our walkers.
CRY would like to thank all the volunteers for their help before, during and after the event: helping to organise the event and attending meetings; carrying out a risk assessment; marking out the route; promoting the event; driving; taking deliveries; pre-event telephone calls and emails and distributing refreshments.
We would also like to thank the volunteers who helped with marshalling; assembling walkers packs; distributing walk leaflets; registering walkers; inflating balloons; leading the group warm up; handing out water; chocolate bars; certificates and feedback forms; and clearing up. We really couldn’t run an event like this, so far away from the CRY office, without the help of our dedicated volunteers:
David (Joe) Crow; Linda and Geoff Goodwin; Carl Higgins; Jeff Morland; Wendy Moss; Steve Percival; Janette Pollard; Julie Slater and Jen Stravghan.
A big thank you also to:
o Staff at Unum’s Bristol Office for printing and assembling the packs.
o The participants who kindly helped with media for the walk. This resulted in some articles already appearing in the press.
Special thanks, once again, must go to Jeff Morland and Steve Percival for helping to organise the event and making it all happen each year.
We missed Kenny and Maralyn Bowen, who were unable to attend this year, but they still made sure that they contacted their local media about the event.
We hope you like the photos. If you participated in the walk and took photos which you would like to see included here, please send them to [email protected] with the subject ‘Durham Walk 2014 photos’. Please also contact [email protected] if you would like to be emailed any of the photos on these pages.
Photos by Doug Moody
The photos in this write up are from a selection of photos from the day. If you would like to view all of the photos, they are available on our Durham Riverside Walk 2014 Flickr gallery
