Walking The Way for Macmillan

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santiago femalefocusonline april23On the 1st of June myself Gill Thomson and my equally crazy friend Tracy Kacperski will set off to walk 800km (500 miles). We will walk the Camino Frances route of the Camino de Santiago. Starting in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in France crossing over the Pyrenees then across the north of Spain from east to west passing through the Basque region, León and Galicia to arrive at our destination in Santiago. Sleeping in albergues (pilgrim hostels) along the way and hopefully mixing with many interesting people from many countries.


This has been a pilgrimage route since the 9th century, following in the footsteps of St James whose remains rest in a tomb within the Cathedral Santiago de Compostela.
In modern days we now follow a well marked route with yellow arrows showing the way every few hundred yards. The arrows only appeared in 1980 when a priest from O’Cebriero designed them in a bid to recover the popularity of the pilgrim route. Last year over 400,000 people walked at least part of this route in order to be awarded a certificate. On reaching Santiago you must show proof that you have walked a minimum of 100km to gain a certificate.
So back to us, the two not so young birds, we have decided we will walk the whole 800km. What makes someone want to do that?
I started reading the first of many memoirs about walking the Camino de Santiago around three years ago. I became obsessed with the subject and read everything I could find, watched films and YouTube videos. I really was inspired to do this walk.
People embark on this pilgrimage for a multitude of reasons. Everything I have read says that this journey is life changing. Some people walk for spiritual or religious reasons some for personal growth or out of gratitude for a prayer answer, or seeking the answer to a prayer. For some it is a walk seeking guidance for a life changing situation. For others it is a challenge or an escape from the pressures of life.
Around the time I started to read about walking the Camino my sister was diagnosed with terminal cancer. I visited her in Scotland as often as I could, spending hours talking to her about my new obsession among other things. Cancer was something we had almost expected and dreaded all our lives. Our grandmother, our mother's older sister and the our mother had all died at a young age from cancer.
My sister encouraged me to go and follow my dream as she felt that cancer had robbed her of the chance to fulfil many of her dreams.
You always think there will be time in the future but for many people that future is cut short. Sadly for my sister she lost her battle with cancer on the 21st of February 2022. My husband has also been a great encouragement, happy to point out that I’m not getting any younger so “I should get on with it”!!
Having decided to get on with it, I was talking about the walk in my local pub, Jolly’s Bar. This friendly bar has raised a great deal of money for Macmillan over the last few years. It was suggested to me that I might want to help raise funds for this much needy cause by collecting sponsorships for my walk...how could I say no when Macmillan were also very supportive to my sister. So Sarah has organised that sponsor forms will be located in Jolly's Bar and Harry's bar both in Quesada for anyone that would like to contribute. A go fund me page has also been set up if anyone would prefer to sponsor this way, a copy of this link is on the Facebook page for Jolly's Bar.