Kath and Lizzie’s Trail to Wales
Donation protected
Follow our expedition on foot from Derby to Llandudno to raise funds for a much needed minibus.
WHO ARE WE?
We first met in 2014 when we started a Youth Work degree at the University of Derby. Over the last 5 years we have become great friends, and over the last year have worked very closely in the task of running a brilliant service for a group of absolutely amazing disabled adults whom we both cherish very dearly. We share similar outlooks on life, morals and values and we are both very passionate people, particularly when it comes to the people we support.
Kath is self-admittedly a high maintenance “princess” (diva), who is also the epitome of unfit. In fact, she prides herself on consistently being able to park in the closest space to a shop, and will often drive round a retail park to move from shop to shop rather than walk. She has almost zilch walking experience, apart from one time when she managed to climb up and down a mountain, then sprained her ankle in a pothole on the path home which resulted in bed rest for a week. She is the clumsiest, most uncoordinated person ever who can’t read a map, has no sense of direction whatsoever and is absolutely incapable of “packing light”. One thing she is fantastic at though is moaning, particularly about how much her feet/back/legs/arms (insert literally any body part or organ) hurts and repeatedly asking how long before she can sit down.
Lizzie is, firstly one of the only people in the world who can keep Kath in check (it’s a gift). She’s a huge fan of a double bed and a set of four wheels to take her places! She has however, played football for the majority of her life which she hopes will have provided some sort of fitness benefit relevant to such a challenging walk! Lizzie hates packing, and will without a doubt forget to take at least one essential item. She also demands coffee as soon as she wakes up, and then repeatedly throughout the day... it’s become core to her functioning. Better yet, she’s vegan so energising snacks will be limited and specific. She’s got no patience for moaning people who want to sit down at any given opportunity. Luckily though, Lizzie is happy to drag people along if they appear unable to stop ranting about their inconveniences.
WHAT ARE WE DOING?
On the 8th of July 2019, we will be setting off from the St James Centre (Derby) on a trek over 120 miles to the top of the Great Orme (Llandudno), a mini-mountain standing at 207 feet.
The walk will take around a week, so we will be camping each night at various campsites along the way.
We can only take what what we can carry on our backs, so the challenge will be intensified by only having access to limited resources. No chance of this trip turning into a luxury glamping retreat!
Our aim is to reach the top of the Great Orme on Monday 15th July, which means we will have to complete up to a whopping 20 miles of walking per day!
WHY ARE WE DOING IT?
We work for a charity that supports people with disabilities between the ages of 3-60 across the city of Derby. Together, we run a project for profoundly disabled adults with extremely complex needs, the majority of whom are full time wheelchair users. We are very passionate about ensuring our adults get to experience as much as possible, creating happy memories and therefore improving their general quality of life.
Due to the inaccessibility of mainstream public transport, we are extremely reliant upon specialist transport services to get our adults from A to B. Therefore, we are often constrained based on their availability, time restrictions, number of vehicles and size restrictions. This means our adults have to miss out on amazing opportunities, all because we are just not able to get there.
So, to remove the barrier of transportation, we began researching buying our own minibus. We quickly realised how much more freedom we would have if we had our own bus, rather than having to rely on other services. Better yet, it quickly became apparent that the addition of a minibus would be a bonus for the whole charity, not just the adults on the Infinity project. The minibus could be used for Fun-Abil8y’s trips in the holidays, making even more activities accessible to wheelchair users, rather than just those trips we could manage to secure transport for!
However, having so many requirements (firstly, being able to fit 4 large wheelchairs on plus accompanying staff members), unsurprisingly comes with a very large price tag. The minibus of our dreams will cost at least £20,000, and unfortunately, as a relatively small charity, we simply do not have such a large sum of money.
Our walk for wheels will be the first of many fundraising events to help us on our mission to get the minibus we so desperately need!
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Well, firstly there’s the obvious one, you could donate! We appreciate any donations no matter how big or small. Or, if you’d prefer to donate in cash then feel free to message the page, or either of us directly, and we will go from there!
You could spread the word! Like our page and share our journey far and wide. Maybe you have connections with local businesses who could display a poster or maybe pop up a collection pot for us?
You could help us prepare! Whether it’s route writing, map reading lessons, keeping us company on our training walks or teaching us (okay, teaching Kath) how to pack light, this walk is gonna take lots of preparation and any help will be welcomed appreciatively.
You could help us collect resources! As this is a mission to raise money, we want to spend as little as possible along the way. This means that we’re hoping to find people, local businesses, campsites, cafes, national “outdoorsy” companies and everything else in between who would be willing to maybe offer us a discount on essential items, donate some equipment, print us some cool personalised T-shirt’s, hook us up with a camping club membership, prepare a hot meal at a pitstop along the way or literally anything else that could be useful to get us on the move. If you or anybody you know could help us, please get in touch - we really do appreciate all the help we can get!
WHO ARE WE?
We first met in 2014 when we started a Youth Work degree at the University of Derby. Over the last 5 years we have become great friends, and over the last year have worked very closely in the task of running a brilliant service for a group of absolutely amazing disabled adults whom we both cherish very dearly. We share similar outlooks on life, morals and values and we are both very passionate people, particularly when it comes to the people we support.
Kath is self-admittedly a high maintenance “princess” (diva), who is also the epitome of unfit. In fact, she prides herself on consistently being able to park in the closest space to a shop, and will often drive round a retail park to move from shop to shop rather than walk. She has almost zilch walking experience, apart from one time when she managed to climb up and down a mountain, then sprained her ankle in a pothole on the path home which resulted in bed rest for a week. She is the clumsiest, most uncoordinated person ever who can’t read a map, has no sense of direction whatsoever and is absolutely incapable of “packing light”. One thing she is fantastic at though is moaning, particularly about how much her feet/back/legs/arms (insert literally any body part or organ) hurts and repeatedly asking how long before she can sit down.
Lizzie is, firstly one of the only people in the world who can keep Kath in check (it’s a gift). She’s a huge fan of a double bed and a set of four wheels to take her places! She has however, played football for the majority of her life which she hopes will have provided some sort of fitness benefit relevant to such a challenging walk! Lizzie hates packing, and will without a doubt forget to take at least one essential item. She also demands coffee as soon as she wakes up, and then repeatedly throughout the day... it’s become core to her functioning. Better yet, she’s vegan so energising snacks will be limited and specific. She’s got no patience for moaning people who want to sit down at any given opportunity. Luckily though, Lizzie is happy to drag people along if they appear unable to stop ranting about their inconveniences.
WHAT ARE WE DOING?
On the 8th of July 2019, we will be setting off from the St James Centre (Derby) on a trek over 120 miles to the top of the Great Orme (Llandudno), a mini-mountain standing at 207 feet.
The walk will take around a week, so we will be camping each night at various campsites along the way.
We can only take what what we can carry on our backs, so the challenge will be intensified by only having access to limited resources. No chance of this trip turning into a luxury glamping retreat!
Our aim is to reach the top of the Great Orme on Monday 15th July, which means we will have to complete up to a whopping 20 miles of walking per day!
WHY ARE WE DOING IT?
We work for a charity that supports people with disabilities between the ages of 3-60 across the city of Derby. Together, we run a project for profoundly disabled adults with extremely complex needs, the majority of whom are full time wheelchair users. We are very passionate about ensuring our adults get to experience as much as possible, creating happy memories and therefore improving their general quality of life.
Due to the inaccessibility of mainstream public transport, we are extremely reliant upon specialist transport services to get our adults from A to B. Therefore, we are often constrained based on their availability, time restrictions, number of vehicles and size restrictions. This means our adults have to miss out on amazing opportunities, all because we are just not able to get there.
So, to remove the barrier of transportation, we began researching buying our own minibus. We quickly realised how much more freedom we would have if we had our own bus, rather than having to rely on other services. Better yet, it quickly became apparent that the addition of a minibus would be a bonus for the whole charity, not just the adults on the Infinity project. The minibus could be used for Fun-Abil8y’s trips in the holidays, making even more activities accessible to wheelchair users, rather than just those trips we could manage to secure transport for!
However, having so many requirements (firstly, being able to fit 4 large wheelchairs on plus accompanying staff members), unsurprisingly comes with a very large price tag. The minibus of our dreams will cost at least £20,000, and unfortunately, as a relatively small charity, we simply do not have such a large sum of money.
Our walk for wheels will be the first of many fundraising events to help us on our mission to get the minibus we so desperately need!
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Well, firstly there’s the obvious one, you could donate! We appreciate any donations no matter how big or small. Or, if you’d prefer to donate in cash then feel free to message the page, or either of us directly, and we will go from there!
You could spread the word! Like our page and share our journey far and wide. Maybe you have connections with local businesses who could display a poster or maybe pop up a collection pot for us?
You could help us prepare! Whether it’s route writing, map reading lessons, keeping us company on our training walks or teaching us (okay, teaching Kath) how to pack light, this walk is gonna take lots of preparation and any help will be welcomed appreciatively.
You could help us collect resources! As this is a mission to raise money, we want to spend as little as possible along the way. This means that we’re hoping to find people, local businesses, campsites, cafes, national “outdoorsy” companies and everything else in between who would be willing to maybe offer us a discount on essential items, donate some equipment, print us some cool personalised T-shirt’s, hook us up with a camping club membership, prepare a hot meal at a pitstop along the way or literally anything else that could be useful to get us on the move. If you or anybody you know could help us, please get in touch - we really do appreciate all the help we can get!
Organizer
Kathryn Holmes
Organizer