White Horse Challenge charity walkers hoping for kinder weather as they step out this year
9:00am Wednesday 6th March 2013 in Latest News
Diane Gilpin, from Great Cheverell, and Hilary Stone, from Littleton Panell, take part in last year’s White Horse Challenge
Participants in the White Horse Challenge are urging others to have a go and raise money for Wiltshire Air Ambulance.
The annual event has raised £89,000 in the last seven years and involves people walking the Wiltshire countryside taking in some of the county’s white horses.
Conditions last year were challenging as there were downpours and it was muddy in places.
Walkers can do a variety of distances and can enter as individuals or a team.
Wiltshire Air Ambulance paramedic Jo Munday, her partner PC Nigel Gilbert, an observer on the combined air ambulance/police helicopter, and his 17-year-old daughter, Megan, took part for the first time last year.
They walked 26 miles from Marlborough to Devizes, and while Mrs Munday and Megan lost toenails, they enjoyed the experience.
Mrs Munday said: “It was a really great achievement and it felt very family orientated. Everyone was in really good spirits, it was a nice sense of community.
“It’s really nice countryside and you have a great sense of accomplishment when you finish.
“The organisers and everyone who is involved have supported the air ambulance so well over the years – they are unsung heroes.”
A team returning to take part this year is a group of employees from National Mobile Windscreens in Trowbridge. They walked 25 miles last year and are going to do the same.
Manager Neil Meaden, 40, was the only one who did not complete it last year, having to pull out after 19 miles.
He said: “I was very disappointed with myself for not completing it. I jarred my knee and it got worse during the walk.
“We all loved the walk and we are looking forward to doing it again. We are training for it with walks across the Westbury White Horse.”
The challenge is on July 6 and 7 and is sponsored by the Gazette & Herald and the Wiltshire Times.
For more information visit www.whitehorsechallenge.co.
uk or call Monahans on (01225) 785520.
