HIKING NEWS ITEM

1000 Mile Walk for Charity

TUESDAY, 27 MARCH 2007

Iain Purdie left the UK to go travelling sometime in March last year. Without a plan, he went on a one-way flight to Thailand without the faintest idea when he'd be back. Two months later, he found himself working with the most amazing children in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The Blue Dragon Children's Foundation (BCDF) helps put Vietnamese street kids through school. Since its foundation, it has gone on to rescue children working in sweat shops, reunite runaways with their parents, provide psychological care, help fund medical expenses, and a lot more.

After travelling for another 10 months – including another trip back to Vietnam – Iain decided it was about time to head home. The thing is he wanted to do something silly on the way back. After all, just turning up and saying “hello” would be a bit boring.

In spite of living in Europe for so many years, he'd not seen much of it. So he started to think about travelling through it on the way home. Then he considered hitch-hiking and walking to save money. And why not raise some money at the same time? And what better cause would it be than the BDCF he'd spent so much time with? And isn't 1000 such a nice round number?

A web site was set up, companies were assailed with begging letters for sponsorship, posters were drafted (spelling mistakes on them corrected and then re-posted), and a route drawn up.

So that's how it started. In late July, Iain will start walking from Monaco. He'll hike into Italy, through France to Switzerland over the Alps, through Geneva back into France, north through Luxembourg into Belgium, then Germany and on to Holland where he'll catch a ferry to Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England, which is the only transportation of the entire trip. The total calculated walking mileage is 1031 miles and the estimated walking time is around 60 days.

How can you help? Visit www.IWouldWalk1000Miles.me.uk, Iain’s website, or Blue Dragon website at www.bdcf.org for more information on sponsoring Iain. Offers of walking/camping equipment would be greatly appreciated from private individuals or companies (in exchange for publicity of course). Feel free to join the walk for a day or three, or if you live anywhere detailed on the route then accommodation would be hugely welcomed to keep costs down. Download posters and put them up around your work place. Add the blog address to your email signature.

Tell people. Spread the word.

If you want any more information on the Walk, it's on the web site. Or contact Iain directly – email is best as he's dotting from country to country until the walk begins. Send an e-mail to Iain at Iain@moshville.co.uk.