David Matthews - The Listening Walker visits Sevenoaks

Yesterday I was very lucky and privileged to meet the inspiring Samaritans Listening Walker David Matthews. David has set himself a challenge to walk from Doncaster around the country visiting all 201 Samaritan branches in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. David popped in to meet our Sevenoaks team where I was able to ask him a few questions about his travels and hear about some of the ups and downs of his challenge to walk 6000 miles…..

David has been a listening volunteer for over 10 years based at Doncaster Branch and decided to start his walk from the Branch in April 2019. David was able to walk for 11 months, with his trailer and camping equipment before the first lockdown started and the walk had to be put on hold for a while. Since then, he has completed as many miles as he can within the government restrictions and has now purchased a camper van where he drives to the destination then buses or trains back to the last branch to begin the next leg of the walk.

David has been overwhelmed by the kindness and support of the Samaritan branches, and in many cases the branch has either offered him shelter for the night, taken him for dinner or in one case he was even treated to a hotel for the night. Many Samaritan volunteers have walked part of the journey with him, and sometimes the outgoing branch will walk half the journey and the incoming branch the other half. This has meant the world to David and has definitely kept his spirits up.

David didn’t really prepare himself for the amount of mileage his body would deal with. In the lead up to the walk he didn’t have time to train properly and only managed one or two 7-mile walks in preparation. This meant that when he started on 14-15 miles per day from day 1, he was in a lot of pain and discomfort and experienced extreme fatigue. After trialling different shoes, he has finally found his comfortable sole mates (pardon the pun) and now sports a colourful bright orange pair of hiking boots and is currently on his seventh pair. David has a separate fundraising account to manage the cost of the journey, so the sponsorship for Samaritans goes 100% to Samaritans. Recently David’s hometown had a cake sale to buy David some new shoes.

David is Vegan so he has to be careful with his diet to ensure he has enough high energy food to keep him going. He often starts the day with porridge and eats lightly throughout the day. Having the camper van helps with preparation of food, but when he goes back to camping in the summer, he will have the additional challenge of providing food without cooking utensils.

David has so many inspirational stories to tell and has met some amazing people along his journey. When asked what his favourite day was David replied, ‘It was a wet day and the rain hadn’t stopped for weeks, all of my clothes were soaked, and it was very bleak and isolating. I came across a tea shop and sat down for lunch. The waitress was very pleasant and served me with a pleasant demeanour. When I went to pay, the waitress politely said there is no need to pay, one of our kitchen staff recognised you and we have been looking at your journey. We are so impressed we called our Manager who said we must let you have what you want on the house.’ This brought David to tears, because in truth he was wondering whether he could continue that morning. What made it so special is that they did not hassle him and ask him about his journey, they just served him and then only when he went to pay, politely said no need to pay, you are an inspiration. David continued his journey that day to find a spot to camp. Everywhere was closed and flooded with water. He came across a camp who were about to close for the week, but the owner said by all means if you can find a dry spot go ahead and I will leave the laundry open for you. David found a dryish spot on a hill and took his soggy clothes and washed and dried them. After a hearty lunch and dry clean clothes David felt so much better and was reminded of how the simple things in life can make you happy.

Again, when walking one day a jogger came up behind David and asked him what he was doing. David got into conversation with this guy who was a regular runner. Only when David asked him if he was training for a race that the runner said no actually the running helps me think. When David talked further, he discovered that the runner had lost his wife a few months earlier and had not talked to anyone about it until he met David. They walked together and talked and later that day the runner went on to donate to David’s page, leaving a really encouraging message. This was a real chance meeting and something that David will never forget.

David has experienced so many acts of kindness along the way and has been humbled by the amount of support he has been given. When visiting a Waitrose one day to buy his favourite vegan sushi for the journey one of the members of staff asked him what he was doing. A number of the Waitrose team members gathered around to hear all about David’s journey and took photographs to help promote his cause. They also gave him his sushi free of charge but left him with an overwhelming feeling of support and kindness. Later that evening David reflected on his day and thought of the title of his book…. It’s about the People, not the Sushi. When David has finished his 6000-mile walk, he intends to write a book about his travel so watch this space….

Sevenoaks Samaritans was the 115th Branch to visit, and so far, David has covered 3800 miles! The next leg of his journey is Tunbridge Wells to Heathfiled then on to Eastbourne. David certainly brightened up the day of our Sevenoaks team on duty, and we wish him well for the rest of his challenge. To find out more about David’s journey or to donate go to www.thelisteningwalk.co.uk or follow him on Facebook, twitter, and Instagram.

Thanks, David, for visiting us, sending you lots of good vibes from all of us here at the Sevenoaks Team.

Julie Phillips – Sevenoaks Samaritans

If you would like to find out more about Samaritans and how you can get involved with your local branch contact [email protected]