The SOFAST organisation (Stride out for Addenbrooke's and Sargent Together) is a local charity raising money for Sargent Cancer Care for Children and Addenbrooke's Hospital Children's Services.  | | Gatting, Thwaites and Morgan |
This year's main fundraising event is a walk around East Anglia taking place from 16th September through to 26th September 2004. The walk will be led by Paul Thwaites, Chief Executive of the Ashwell Property Group and Chairman of SOFAST, accompanied by Mike Gatting OBE, former England Cricket Captain, and David Morgan, Commonwealth Weightlifting Gold Medallist. Hot-footing it over 250 miles across East Anglia, SOFAST aims to raise over £1 million for both charities. Keep on track with our daily progress diary – emailed exclusively to BBC Cambridgeshire by the celebrity walkers! Walking boots at the ready, the intrepid trio will spend 11 days on the road, beginning at 9am at Addenbrook'’s Hospital, Cambridge, on Thursday 16th September, and finishing at Parker's Piece, Cambridge, at 1pm on Sunday 26th September. In between, the team will walk to Great Dunmow, Chelmsford, Colchester, Ipswich, Saxmundham, Lowestoft, Great Yarmouth, Norwich, Diss, Bury St Edmunds and Newmarket. For full details of the 11 stages, see the SOFAST website at www.sofast.org.uk. Make sure you're somewhere along the route to cheer them on – and if you're lucky, maybe you'll get to rub their tired feet! And if that's not enough to encourage you onto the route, the threesome will be joined by footballers from Ipswich and Norwich, plus guests from the Bunbury's celebrity cricket team. Famous faces, nice legs – what more could you ask for? Join in the Jamboree on the final day!  | | Terry Waite joins in the final leg... |
On Sunday 26th September the walkers will be joined by former Beirut hostage Terry Waite, who will lead them for the final four miles to Cambridge. As they arrive back at Parker's Piece in Cambridge, everyone's invited to welcome them home at a great jamboree, beginning at 1pm. Q103 will provide the music, there's a beer tent, plenty of refreshments, panto characters from the Arts Theatre to entertain the little ones and regular progress reports as the walkers get closer to the finish line. The whole event will culminate in a procession through the streets of Cambridge, with the walkers accompanied by a military band and those panto characters again! Will they make a million to help children in our region? Well, if you go along and support them en route, or take a look at the SOFAST website at www.sofast.org.uk, you'll see how you can help them reach their target!
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Have Your Say *** Jay ***
my girl lives down in saffron walden its an historical place u shudnt judge ppl cos where they live! *jay* Sally Cassels from the Fund for Addenbrooke's
I asked Dr Rob Ross Russell (Clinical Director of Paediatrics at Addenbrooke's) how he'd found the walk on day one, when the team covered 28 miles between Addenbrooke's and Great Dunmow, and his message was - 'It was a wonderful day!! The weather was spectacular and the walk was just lovely. The best part was probably that all the walkers were such good company. We could wander up and down the line chatting and everybody got along really well. Oh, and getting the 'Pink Geranium' car pulling up from time to time with the food was pretty special as well. My thanks to all the organisers and especially the support team!' Carole Jones, Safron Walden
I was very ashamed to hear Mike Gatting on Look East refer to the miserable & mean people of Saffron Walden. The walk had very little publicity here and I can only assume people didn't know what it was all about. I am sending Mike Gatting a cheque to go towards funds. I am on holiday 18th to 25th so cannot join in the walk but my husband, a Saffron Walden town councillor is suggesting that we do something in Saffron Walden to make up for first impressions. Apologies to all the walkers - they are doing a geat job. Carole Jones Trisha Cook
My husband and I live near Saffron Walden and just so that Gatt doesn't have a bad opinion of us, we intend to find the walkers tomorrow and donate £20.00 mags ward d2
good luck to all the walkers from all on d2 |
