On Wednesday May 15th, fellow volunteer David Matthews arrived at our branch, as part of his epic trek around the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland
David is walking 6,000 miles so he can visit every one of Samaritans' 201 branches and to carry out a shift in each one. As he walks from branch to branch he aims to raise awareness - and funds - for Samaritans.
Once he’d caught his breath, David joined our evening shift to answer calls, emails and texts from our callers - pretty amazing when you consider he had walked 22 miles to reach us that day!
His visit to our branch was the 18th stage of his mammoth trek which he started on April 14th 2018 - the walk is anticipated to take about two years. The next stage of his walk will take him to the Sunderland Branch.
David was inspired by another Samaritan volunteer who travelled around all the branches on his motorbike about five or six years ago, to raise awareness of the work of Samaritans.
David said, “I thought that was a really good thing and so it got me thinking that I could do something like that. I pondered how I might do it and which branches I might visit. So I began to look on Google Maps at the branches and realised that there was almost a natural route between the branches that would lead neatly onto the next one with no need to double back for instance. A route which I could walk.”
David is a volunteer with Doncaster Samaritans which is where he set off, and despite the fact that he actually suffers from seasickness, his journey includes 17 ferry crossings. His aims are to raise awareness of the work of Samaritans and to raise funds for the organisation.
The schedule for the walk can be found here www.thelisteningwalk.co.uk where details of how to donate either to the Samaritans or to the estimated £35,000 that the walk will cost can also be found.