Words by Smiley Team
Over 30,000km: this is the total length of the UK’s coastline and the distance 55-year-old Karen Penny is walking while fundraising for Alzheimer’s Research UK.
The retired lawyer set off in 2019 and expects the journey to take her four years of travelling by foot with a heavy rucksack on her back, returning home only when Covid-19 lockdown restrictions forbid her from carrying on.
She recalled: “Somebody said to me, ‘Are you mad to walk around the whole of Britain and Ireland?’ and I said ‘You know what mad means though? It means Make A Difference.’ I think if you can make a difference every day it's really important, and that's what I strive to do.”
Walking this distance will make Karen the first woman to attempt to travel the entire length of the UK’s coastlines by foot and she’s hoping the challenge will raise vital funds and awareness for Alzheimer’s Research UK.
With the target of raising £100,000, she has already collected nearly £78.5 thousand so has only about £20,000 to go.
“The support has been absolutely overwhelming,” she said. “I think the biggest thing I've learned from my walk so far is that people are very kind.”
Along the way she has received donations of all sorts, from a little boy in Blackpool who donated 50 pence because that’s all he had, to an anonymous donation of £10,000 made online.
Karen described another heart-warming donation she received: “I was about to pass through a village, and as I went through there was a walking stick, banging on a window.” The owner of the walking stick was a woman who had been following Karen’s journey online and had been expecting her arrival so had collected a bag of Euros especially to donate to her cause.
It being St Patrick’s Day, Karen has received messages from people she encountered while walking around Ireland, where she was met with a particularly welcoming reception.
“People were stopping and saying, ‘You’re the lady walking, come and stay with us,' and ultimately I only had to pop the tent up in Ireland a handful of times such was the generosity from so many people,” she recounted.
Karen was inspired to support Alzheimer’s Research UK after her father in law fell ill with the disease, which took a heavy toll on her family.
“Sadly, there came a point where he no longer recognised his own son, and it was heartbreaking to have somebody who we were so close to and loved so much, who was no longer able to recognise us,” she recalled.
As one of the leading causes of death in the world, Alzheimer’s has a devastating impact on families.
To support vital research into possible cures donate to Karen’s fundraiser or directly to Alzheimer’s Research UK.
