On the 17th September, 11 members of WS took part in a 10 mile walk round the Royal Park in order to raise money for our Charity of the Year – Women’s Aid.
The team was: Daniella King, Amy O’Brien, Cameron Lowrie, Dan Wright, Hayley Turner, Hoda Mahmoud, Jo Reith, Kate Garrow, Lisa James, Nicky Lever & Rajesh Gadhvi.
The challenges started before we even had our walking shoes on! First we had to change the original date of the walk due to the Tube Strike, which sadly meant that 3 members of our team had to drop out. Then on the day of the walk, we realised that the planned route would take us through an Anti-Trump Demo taking place along Whitehall and Westminster just when we were due to be reaching these areas. To avoid this we made some last minute changes to the route which meant we had to ignore St James Park and head to Victoria instead – but at least the changes allowed us to revisit Great Peter Street and Strutton Ground, which were our old stomping grounds when we were based on Westminster.
So finally we set off at 1pm – we left the suntan cream behind us as the grey clouds indicated that this wasn’t going to be needed and instead we came armed with hats, gloves, umbrellas and disposable ponchos – but for once BBC Weather was correct and we are glad to say the afternoon was dry and no signs of rain.
We headed over Blackfriars Bridge, through the City, to Trafalgar Square and then down the Mall which was awash with UK and USA flags and then entered Green Park. Then over to Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens before we headed back. Luckily, we avoided the protestors – although there were signs of a heavy police presence near the parks and surveillance helicopters above us in the skies.
The quickest group back completed the route in about 3 hours and 20 minutes and others in about 4 hours – we then all met up again in the office to sit down to a well-deserved drink and nibbles in the 8th Floor Social Area. So a great afternoon as had by all, and it was nice seeing people who didn’t know each other talking and connecting each other as we walked along.
And of course we did this to raise money for Women’s Aid. So far out target is £1500 and we have raised £970 – so only another 34% to go to our target, so if you make a donation we would be very grateful.
Donate here: https://www.justgiving.com/page/winckworth-sherwood-69
