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Gillian Craig's 500 Mile Sponsored Walk for Combat Stress

June 2020

GCN NETWORKING: GCN has helped support and promote Gillian's Sponsored Walk.

Visit Gillian Craig's Facebook Page

After being inspired by Keir Malloch's own efforts, who raised £6268.00 for the NHS, Gillian also wanted to 'do her bit' to help Combat Stress, which has seen a significant increase in demand for Services during this lockdown pandemic. They need funds to continue to help those service men and women (and their families!) to hopefully prevent any further tragedy in their lives.

Gillian Craig all set to begin her sponsored walk of 500 miles, hoping to raise at least £500.

Since the start of the ‘Lock Down of Covid-19 Virus’, Gillian Craig has been helping isolated families with shopping and teaching how to shop on line, in her local area of Churchdown, Gloucestershire. Gillian further decided that she wanted to both raise donations for Combat Stress and to raise awareness of the additional impact that COVID-19 Lockdown has had on Veterans with mental health concerns.

Gillian Graig having walked 21 miles on day 23 (23rd June), with still 7 days of walking to go!

Throughout the month of June, Gillian walked 500 miles for the charity Combat Stress, for Veterans' Mental Health. She aimed to walk a minimum of 17 miles per day, roughly 35,000 steps, raising £1 for every mile walked.

Gillian Graig with GCN Founder, Christopher Auker-Howlett, at the Churchdown branch of Tesco

On Saturday 27th June, Gillian met Christopher Auker-Howlett, Founder and Lead Networker for Gloucester Community Networking (GCN), at the Churchdown branch of Tesco. In preparation of the Armed Forces Day on 30th June, Chris had set up a notice board with information about Armed Forces Day, Combat Stress and also information about Gillian's 500 mile sponsored walk, to help raise awareness of Gillian's efforts.

Gillian Graig on the last day of her sponsored walk

Gillian successfully completed her 30 day, 500 mile sponsored walk with the following stats:

  • 500 miles
  • 1,062,345 steps
  • Equivalent distance: Dundee to Dover
  • Amount currently raised: £1970.00

You are still able to contribute to Gillian's sponsored walk by dontating fund to Combat Stress via Gillian's Just Giving page.

GCN is very proud and grateful to Gillian for her amazing achievement in raising much needed funds for Combat Stress, who have suffered a fall in funds, partially due to cuts in NHS funding support.

Further information via BBC News: Veterans' charity Combat Stress stops new referrals over funding crisis