A man from Penrith has just completed a 300-mile trek with two fellow fathers who all lost their daughters to suicide.
Andy Airey formed ‘3 Dads Walking’ with Mike Palmer from Greater Manchester and Tim Owen from Norfolk. The three men began their walk on October 9 and completed their challenge on Saturday morning.
Discussing how he feels after the trek, Andy said: “It actually feels odd and surreal. We talked about it for such a long time, then in the run up to the walk we just couldn’t wait to get going and now it’s happened and it feels like it was done in a flash.
“To think we have just walked over 300 miles is a bit mad, the thing we’ve spoken about for months is done and dusted. I’m trying to write as many memories of the weekend down before it all fades.”
When asked if there were any memorable moments from the walk, Andy answered: “Every day was memorable, we took notes of people we spent time speaking to along the way and saw some beautiful countrysides. We spoke to hundreds along the way who wished us luck and it just reminds you of the kindness of the British people.”
With no plans lined up, Andy is looking forward to a bit of rest. He said: “We haven’t really talked about it as the focus was on the walk. It was a very physical and emotional challenge, and all our attention was on making sure we completed it. Now we’re home and realising it’s the end, the main thing for me is to get a bit of sleep!”
The men have raised over £700,000 for suicide awareness charity PAPYRUS, with news of Hollywood stars Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman both donating £10,000 reaching national news.
Speaking about the amount raised, Andy said: “Absolutely gobsmacked. We set off with an individual target of £3,000 each! I’m really pleased that we have managed to raise that amount of money, but we said from the beginning that the main reason why we took part in the challenge was to raise awareness for PAPYRUS.
“Of course, when you start to see all this money coming in it makes you realise just how much help that is going to do for the charity. I was just looking this morning on our JustGiving page and over 27,000 individual people have donated which I can’t get my head around. It’s been a superb thing to get involved with and I’m pleased that so many people got behind it.”
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