ABOUT
Mark Smith (48) and Mary-anne Johnson (45) are brother and sister, both born and living in Leicestershire. During the summer of 2018 during a difficult time supporting their families with a crisis, they both talked to each other about the need to spend some time together, perhaps going out for a walk. Ideas escalated and they found themselves committing to an ambitious plan to complete the Leicestershre Round! This really appealed to Mark and Mary-anne, to revisit, appreciate and explore new areas within their home county, whilst still providing them with a challenging 100 mile walk. Neither of them are experienced walkers!
Mark and Mary-anne are aiming to complete the whole challenge over the course of 5 days in March 2018 (27th to 31st). The walk has 39 stages varying from 1 to 4 ½ miles so it seemed a great idea to open this walk up to others – people could chose to do as little or as much as they liked.
In September 2016 Mark lost a friend and colleague, Ketan Radia, from sudden cardiac death. Mark had such empathy for the family as himself and Mary-anne, and the whole of their family had been left devastated by the death of their brother Steven (36) in 2008 due to a brain tumour. Because of their parallel experiences it was felt appropriate to invite Ketan’s family to join too on this walk.
It seemed appropriate that this walk would be an opportunity to raise money and awareness for organisations that were very important to the families. CRY is an organisation which aims to prevent young sudden cardiac deaths through awareness, screening and research, and supporting affected families. The Laura Centre based in Leicester offers specialist bereavement counseling to children and young people who have been bereaved of a parent or significant person. Both Steven and Ketan had young families. Headway is the brain injury association that provides support, services and information to patients, family and carer’s following a brain injury. This charity is not only relevant to Steven, but his father-in-law passed away in the summer 2018 following a traumatic brain injury.
Anyone who is interested in joining the walk or supporting the walkers, please message for further information.
TEAM
Mark Smith
Mark has lived and worked in Leicestershire for most of his life and is really looking forward to the challenge ahead. He has always been a great supporter of everything Leicester and Leicestershire and has supported a number of local charities.
He is particularly looking forward to undertaking this challenge with his sister and hopes as many friends, family and colleagues past and present will join them either on the walk, providing support or helping to raise funds for three great charities.
Mary-anne Johnson
Mary-anne is 45 years old, She has been foolishly led into this walk by her brother Mark! However, she is very much up for a challenge and intends to spend some time in the next few weeks preparing for the walks, taking in the beauty on our doorsteps. She hopes to raise awareness for the charities chosen, particularly for her the Headway charity that is very relevant to her youngest brother, Steven and his father in law, Paul.