After over 200 miles of training walks, many of which involved carry 28 pounds of weights in a rucksack (building up the legs for those hills), the big day finally arrived. Twelve of us set off from Bewdley at 05:50 am hoping to complete the 31 miles and 1560 metres of ascent over the Worcestershire hills. Were we going to make it? The forecast was set for a dry day but the temperature was going to rise in the afternoon to around 20 degrees, about the time we would be tackling the final and steepest hill of the walk to reach the finishing point at Great Malvern. To be quite honest it felt a lot hotter and I lost count of the number of litres of water I consumed on route. The heat and the distance did take its toll and some of the walkers had to drop out along the way. However all the training paid off; I managed reached the finishing point along with my daughter Sarah. For some strange reason the last 200 yards became a run to the finish. I can only conclude that the smell of beer in the air can make a thirsty man do strange things.
Thankfully a day later I am none the worse for wear; a few aches and pains in the legs and still dog, tired despite nine hours solid sleep. I count myself lucky as many people with vasculitis could not even contemplate such a physical challenge. I sincerely hope it stays that way for me (not that I’m thinking of doing the walk again!). For me this was my personal challenge against vasculitis. I think I gave it a good kicking.
My friends, family and work colleagues have generously helped me raise £1250 for Vasculitis UK. Hopefully there will some more to come.
I must say a special thanks to Martyn Wells who has tirelessly organised and promoted this event. And in the face of a lot of current medical adversity he amazingly completed the whole 31 miles. Well done Martyn.
Chris
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Chris-Bromsgrove
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Very well done ... you certainly DID give vasculitis a real good kicking.
A week tomorrow my wife and I were due to take our touring caravan to Switzerland, via France & Luxembourg, for a walking holiday .. but it has had to be cancelled for obvious reasons.
But I am still optimistic that I WILL put my walking boots back on again and hopefully ascend a few more hills. Hill and coastal path walking is really the best and so I'm not yet writing off the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and Dorset Coastal Path in the future.
The disease and the drugs certainly take their toll but I'm sure things will improve for you. It does take time. Five weeks after I was told I was in remission we booked a few days in the Lakes. I got a bit of a shock when I attempted Crinkle Crags. The batteries just went flat. I knew if I was going to attempt the Worcs Way there was going to need to be a lot of training before hand.
Chris; it was a real pleasure to walk with you and Sarah. The whole event will stay in my memory for the rest of my life; very fond memories of a wonderful day for so many different reasons.
And well done for running too; that's just showing off!
You have done a great job organising this event and we really enjoyed walking with you and your friends. Although the Worcs Way is certainly challenging, it was a great choice and infinitely better than pounding the streets.
Congratulation to everyone. The photos tell a story. I am so impressed crossing the finishing line after such a long and challenging walk. Many thanks to all.
Well done Chris, Martyn and all of you! Amazingly, you could raise a smile for the final photo.. Martyn, if you had followed my advice about shaving off the body hair and applying Vaseline you could have given Chris a run for his money at the finish. just want to say thank you to you all on behalf of Vasculitis UK for your amazing effort!
The most important message for us all is that whatever type of vasculitis you have, MPA, PAN, whatever, it doesn't necessarily mean that your life is over, and everything becomes doom and gloom. Chris and I showed that with a little bittle of determination you can overcome many of the symptoms and impacts of our disease, so long as you respect your body and know where your limits are.
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just want to say thank you to you all on behalf of Vasculitis UK for your amazing effort! 
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