We’re all for supporting worthy causes. That’s why Sweatcoin promotes technology for good. We want to encourage people to walk to improve physical and mental health across the globe.
It seems that plenty of other people agree with us. And we don’t mean the millions of people that have already downloaded our app. We’re talking about the glut of people that put in days of hard graft walking for charity.
After being inspired by the story of Major Chris Brannigan who is walking barefoot across America to raise money for a rare children’s disease, we thought it would be interesting to research other charity walks people are organising.
It turns out there have been quite a few this year alone. Walking extreme distances requires an immense amount of effort and pain. But walking for charity captures the attention of local communities and raises awareness of charities and the people they support that need your help.
Ladies Love Walking
A walking group in Leek, UK, is setting out to master the Three Peaks of Staffordshire. “Ladies Love Walking” are up for the challenge in order to raise funds for the local Douglas Macmillan hospice – a long-standing charity in the UK that provides funds to help care for cancer patients.
However, the goal of the charity walk is not only to raise money for a good cause but to promote the health and wellbeing benefits of walking to the broader community.
The Ladies Love Walking Leek group was established during the first UK lockdown in 2020. The organiser Diane Carter hopes to encourage more women in the area to achieve their fitness goals by walking the local trails.
The 15-mile charity walk across the Three Peaks takes in Oliver Hill at 513 metres, Cheeks Hill at 520 metres and the Roaches at 505 metres.
The Walking Wounded
Raising money by walking for charity doesn’t always mean you have to physically put yourself through the paces. You can leave a donation in your Will as a gift.
Leaving a gift to the Walking Wounded helps ex-military men and women that sustained injuries or mental health during their service. Each year, the Walking With The Wounded charity holds an awareness week to inform people of the potential to leave a legacy in their Will.
This year, the group has organised a 6th international expedition sponsored by the Duke of Sussex. The Grenadier Walk of Oman was due to take place overseas but has twice been postponed due to Covid-19.
The six-man team have decided to stay on home soil and take the challenge of walking 400km in 12 days. The route will start in Hereford and finish at the Omani Embassy in London’s Belgravia taking in Pen-Y-Fen and the historic Thames Path along the way.
Mental Health Charity Walk
A women’s walking group in Bristol have organised a 30-mile walk for charity to raise funds for the city’s mental health charity Nilaari – a therapy centre dedicated to helping to improve the wellbeing of African and Caribbean women.
The charity has changed the life for thousands of patients and the woman’s walking group want to honour the valuable work the charity does for the local community.
Charities like Nilaari are important for local communities. The national mental health organisation Mind report that a disproportionate number of people from BAME communities seek help with mental health issues – and are detained under the Mental Health Act.
Local organisations help to expand the support network for people suffering from common mental health issues such as grief, depression, addiction and anxiety.
The 30-mile walk will help to raise money for Nilaari and also raise awareness for other women with African and Caribbean heritage that feel they need to support managing mental health conditions.
Children’s Hospice Charity Walk
The Francis House Children’s Hospice holds an annual walking for charity event – the Cheshire Three Peaks Challenge. With over a hundred participants turning up each year, the challenge has become a popular event on the Hospices calendar.
The Three Peaks is a demanding 13.6-mile trek through the hills that surround Tegg’s Nose Country Park in Macclesfield, UK. There is also a family-friendly route that covers a distance of 6.5 miles.
Locals also give generously. This year the participants raked in more than £11,500 for the hospice. The Francis House Children’s Hospice supports families of children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions from Greater Manchester.
One Man And His Dog Walking for Charity
Trekkers in the UK are not the only communities walking for charity. There are plenty of examples in the United States and elsewhere around the world too!
Sam Green is walking 300 miles across the United States with his dog, Taylor Ham, a 75-pound pit bull/border collie mix. Their journey began in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, and head out west to Los Angeles.
The purpose of the charity walk is to raise money for Just Believe Inc. a New Jersey-based charity that provides homeless people with shelter. The charity is also working on a project called “Jeff’s Camp” which has the goal of building a homeless shelter for war veterans.
Green has had a life-long ambition to walk across America. Walking for charity provided him with ample motivation to pack his rucksack and doggie bag.
The target is to walk around 15-miles a day which is a good stint by anybody’s reckoning. The most productive day was a whopping 35-miles. Green also finds time to post on his YouTube channel during the course of the week.
In his videos, Green talks about life on the road, camping out at night and the number of like-minded people he meets also crossing the States, either by bike or on foot.
Taylor Ham is said to have taken to life on the road pretty well, but can only manage a mile or two a day. For the rest of the way, Green pushed her in a doggy-stroller which is modified with three rechargeable fans to keep her cool.
The goal is to raise $25,000 by the time he reaches Los Angeles in mid-to-late October. To date, his GoFundeMe account, Wander with Sam to help Ocean County’s homeless has raised just over $9,200.
Time in a Bottle Charity Walk
A couple from Huntington Beach sold all their belongings and walked all the way from California to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Matt Grooms and Grace Nesseth trekked more than 2700 miles and 11 states in 145 days to raise money for charity.
Waling for charity helped to raise $60,000 for Time in a Bottle – a non-profit organisation that supports parents who have children with life-threatening diseases. The charity enables the parents to spend precious time with the children.
The Time in as Bottle charity was started by the mother of Grace when her brother contracted cancer at the age of 11. To support her son during his illness and attend appointments with him, she gave up her job and took on some cleaning work to bring in a little extra income.
Charity Walk Across America
Marc Dudek, a graduate of the University of Cincinnati had previously driven across the United States. To raise money for charity, he thought he would make the challenge more difficult and explore the country on foot.
His efforts were well rewarded – raising $6,739 for the Cincinnati nonprofit organisation Inner City Youth Opportunities and the Autism Society of America. Many of the people that he met a the local high school benefit from the program.
Dudek was clocking up between 20 and 30 miles per day which is impressive. Imagine what you could buy with all those Sweatcoins.
Titans Walking for Charity
Earlier this year, former NRL rugby league player Chris Walker embarked on a marathon 1,575-kilometre hike which he hopes to complete in 66 days. The charity walk will start in Cairns and end in the Gold Coast.
Walker, a former player for the Titans and the Queensland State of Origin was joined by fellow former Titan Nate Myles for the first leg of the walk.
The “Walk of a Lifetime” Challenge raised $200k for Beyond Blue, RizeUp Australia, the Alcohol and Drug Foundation, Global Awakening and the Carl Webb foundation for Motor Neurone Disease.
15-Year Old Walking 1200km for Charity
Will Neisler, a 15-year old from Brisbane in Australia has set himself a gruelling 1200km challenge – to walk from his hometown to the famous Sydney Opera House to raise money for The Salvation Army. He got the urge to do “one last big thing before I left school [he is home-schooled] and got a job.”
He will be accompanied by a family friend and former police officer Tim Koloi and shadowed by his father that will support the team on their travels. No matter how hard you try to get away from your parents eh…
The mammoth journey will take seven weeks, a tough physical challenge for a teenager. But it’s all for a good cause and the duo hope to raise AUS $50,000. The departure was attended by several Brisbane television and radio stations.
Plans for the journey involve steering away from major roads and sticking to coastal paths and bushland. Considering Australia’s mesmerising coastline, that probably wasn’t a difficult decision.
The farthest distance Will has walked in one stint before is 30km – a target he set himself during his training. Tim expects them both to suffer quite a bit of pain – even though Will said he had been injury-free during his training.
Walking for Charity in South Africa
A finalist of this year’s Miss Junior South Africa continued her charity work by hosting a Walk for Cancer event at Loch Lynne Wine Estate in Durbanville earlier this year.
Micia Smit organised a charity walk to honour people that have died of cancer and to support patients battling against the disease. The funds raised from the event will be donated to the Cancer Association of South Africa (Cansa) which supports children living with cancer.
In an interview, Micia said:
“We can help Cansa to continue their fight against cancer. By enabling research, to educate the public, to provide care and support people affected by cancer,” said the Grade 12 pupil.
67-Day Charity Walk To Honour Nelson Mandela
Three men, Lufezo Jigga Thomas, Trevor Chomumwe and the Australian adventurer, Dylan Colman have laid down the gauntlet to walk across South Africa from Qunu, in the east to the country’s capital Cape Town in the west.
The duo has assigned 67 days to complete the journey which will cover around 1160 km. That may only be 3.5 km a day, but they intend to help in-need families in various towns, villages and suburbs along the way. The trio will be donating food and clothes, cleaning the homes of the elderly and helping abandoned animals with food donations.
Thomas was inspired to embark on the charity walk by the great Nelson Mandela. In addition to helping people along the way, the trio intends to honour the memory of President Mandela and everything he did for the country.
Download the Sweatcoin App
Do you have any plans to raise money walking for charity?
Don’t forget to download the sweat coin app and earn digital tokens for your efforts. For every 1000 steps you take, you are rewarded with 1SWC which you can use to purchase merchandise from over 300 merchants.
