Belvoir Bolton’s Property Manager Alison Whittaker recently laced up her walking boots for an on-foot charity challenge in aid of Dogs for the Disabled.
Putting her best foot forward Alison, along with friend Cate Meagher, set off from St Bee’s in Cumbria for a gruelling 192-mile trek across the UK to Robin Hood’s Bay. The charitable pair completed the challenge in 13 days and raised more than £700 in donations.
“I do a lot of hill walking out and about locally and the coast-to-coast trek was a challenge I’d always wanted to do,” explains Alison. “It was on my bucket list of things I’d like to achieve and, as a big birthday (my 50th) approached, I thought, let’s just do it!
“I decided to dedicate my walk to Dogs for the Disabled because I saw a TV programme about them and the work that they do. It really is fantastic. Also, they’ve recently opened a North West centre not far from us here in Bolton so I thought it would be great to support a good cause locally.
“During the walk we were very lucky. We had very good weather for the entire two weeks but, of course, it was challenging at times,” she continues. “You may be used to walking and you may be used to the terrain of walking in the hills, but what you’re not used to is getting up every day and doing it relentlessly for two weeks. Your knees are hurting, your ankles are hurting, you’ve got blisters… and every day you’ve got to get up and do it all over again.
“Reaching the finishing point at Robin Hood’s Bay was a fabulous moment and I felt a real sense of achievement. Everybody made such a fuss of us and it was fantastic to think that we’d done it and had raised so much money for charity at the same time.”
Alison is the latest Belvoir employee to take on a charity challenge. This year, Belvoir offices across the UK have decided to focus their fund-raising efforts on local charities and generous franchise owners and staff have already raised thousands of pounds for good causes in their communities.
Fund-raising events organised so far have included sky dives, cycle rides, charity auctions and even walking across a bed of red-hot coals. The teams at Belvoir look forward to presenting even more cheques to their local charities in the coming months.
