Walking to raise awareness

A woman, whose dad died shortly after he discovered our charity, has walked the length of Hadrian’s Wall in a bid to raise awareness so that we can support more veterans.

Janine, from Birmingham, was joined by her partner, Paul, and two friends, Helen and Roger, for the 84-mile challenge. The group were raising money for, and increasing awareness of, our charity and a Staffordshire based breast cancer charity which is also close to their hearts.

Janine’s dad, Joe, served in the Army with the Royal Anglian Regiment. During his service he completed three tours of Northern Ireland but never spoke of his experience.

Joe lost his sight due to macular degeneration in his late 60s. He was only 71 when he died and sadly the family only found out about the support available from us a few months before.

The group set off from Carlisle on June 1 and took six days to complete the walk and reach Newcastle. While on the walk, two poignant dates were marked, the 80th anniversary of D-Day and the first anniversary of Joe’s death which Janine was sure to mark with a pint of Carling. 

By doing this walk, and wearing one of our t-shirts, Janine wanted to promote the charity to other veterans. She says:

"The support that my dad was offered was amazing. He was really looking forward to getting involved with the charity and especially staying at one of the centres for a holiday.

“Day four of the walk was incredibly tough with high winds and rain, the weather was relentless and I injured both feet and a knee. That night I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get out of bed the next day and carry on but I was spurred on by wanting to do it for all the blind veterans. We wore our Blind Veterans UK t-shirts with pride every day, no matter what the weather to ensure they were seen by as many people as possible."

Janine says that her Dad was hugely affected by his sight loss. He had always been a very independent man and felt that losing his sight took his choices away from him and left him relying on others. She says:

“Dad found life with sight loss lonely, people would walk past and smile at him, but he wouldn’t know they had.

“Getting a white cane made a huge difference to dad as people knew to say hello rather than to just smile and he was no longer seen as the rude man sat in the corner."

Janine has already raised £575. You can help her raise even more money for our blind veterans: