A counsellor with the Help for Heroes’ Hidden Wounds team is ‘walking the walk’ in April to help raise funds for the Armed Forces charity.
Isobel Thompson, 57, from Swindon, has worked for the Wiltshire-based national charity for two-and-a-half years and will walk the 96-mile West Highland Way as part of her sister Ruth’s 60th-birthday challenge, starting on 11 April.
Isobel explained:
“We used to go on a lot of long walks together when we were teenagers and this is a little bit like reliving that, a bit like a second youth: except she has dodgy knees and I have dicky hips!
“We’ve previously walked the 84-mile Hadrian’s Wall and the 87-mile Ridgeway – from Ivinghoe Beacon near Tring, in Buckinghamshire to Avebury, Wiltshire – but this is just a little bit longer…and we’re a little bit older. We had planned on doing it last year, but we had to postpone it because of Covid.
“Fittingly, the final stretch of the walk is on the Military Way, which is appropriate given I’m raising funds for Help for Heroes.”
The West Highland Walk runs from Milngavie, north of Glasgow, to Fort William, in the Scottish Highlands, taking in a huge variety of scenery along the way, from countryside parks to loch shores, and open moorlands to steep mountains.
Isobel, whose husband, Keith, is an RAF veteran, added:
“It’s well documented that spending time out in green spaces is beneficial for one’s psychological health and I often say this to people. I’ve talked the talk, and now I’m ‘walking the walk’…literally.
“The current news headlines just remind us again how much we owe our veterans and how we need to support those who are wounded, injured or sick. I’m hoping that pushing myself to do this will encourage people to support the charity via my JustGiving page, at a time when current events may be triggering for our own veterans.”
Help for Heroes believes those who serve our country deserve support when they’re wounded. Every day, men and women have to leave their careers in the Armed Forces as a result of physical or psychological wounds. The Charity helps them, and their families, to recover and get on with their lives. It has already supported more than 26,500 people and won’t stop until every wounded veteran gets the support they deserve.
To support Isobel Thompson’s fundraising efforts, please visit her JustGiving page. For further information on Help for Heroes, or to get support, visit helpforheroes.org.uk.
