Andy Reynolds raises an amazing £2649.00 whilst strollin for strokes in Liverpool, completing a 13-mile sponsored walk with his family and friends!

So, the walk is done! It felt like the culmination of many months of worry, self-doubt, ups, downs, perseverance, and a healthy dose of acceptance…an acceptance that if I’m going to progress, there is only one person that needs to get moving.

When it comes to ‘training’, I didn’t really do anything specific. It was all just part of my overall rehabilitation, I took part in walking football once a week for three months. This had to end when I started working again, so I replaced it with a gym membership.

This, alongside some progressively longer evening and weekend walks, meant that I could manage the required distance a week prior to the event itself. I was not only improving my fitness, but also my confidence and self-belief. And importantly, contributing to my overall rehabilitation and getting myself back to something like normal life.

The day of the walk:

The day itself was a great event, families and friends and hundreds of people walking for their own different reasons and causes. The weather was perfect - maybe a little warmer than we wanted, but I’m never going to complain about getting sunny weather in this country!! 

Liverpool looks so good in the sun - an ideal setting.

My own group was a mixture of friends and family - 11 of us walking for the same cause; to raise valuable funds for Think Ahead Stroke. The published distance of the walk was 8 miles, but I genuinely think some sort of mistake was made somewhere because we all struggled a bit with the distance - not just me!  When I went to bed that night, my watch, and phone told me that I’d walked a total of 13 miles, between getting up in the morning and going to bed that night, so we definitely earned our medals!

As much as I have been helped by Think Ahead, the various medical staff and my loved ones, I derive an enormous sense of satisfaction and gratitude knowing that I am now able to help others that are in the position that I was once in. This is the biggest help of all and surely that’s what humanity is all about.

Think Ahead and their members are more than welcome for the funds raised, I hope the money makes a real difference.

Thank you very much to everyone who has generously donated!

Andy

 

*Video provided by Be Well Wigan with permission*

*During Andy's journey to recovery, he attended one of our educational programmes - the Stepping Stones programme, where he came into contact with one of our guest speakers - Be Well Wigan.  This then enabled Andy to access their walking football activity and long term conditions gym programme, which also helped him rediscover his real self and in Andy's words "I didn't want to lose that part of who I am."

Andy is living proof of what can be achieved through sheer determination and a willingness to engage with the support services and resources that are available within our community.