David on Camino de Santiago walk

A LISBURN man will be going to great lengths - 484 miles to be exact - to raise £1,000 for a cancer charity.

David Scott, left this week in an attempt to complete a walk on the Camino de Santiago, something that he has tried to do a few times before but failed.

He will follow in the footsteps of the pilgrims along the Camino de Santiago beginning at the French Pyrenees and leading into North western Spain.

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The walk will take David six weeks to complete and he will raise much needed funds for the only charity in Northern Ireland to provide free breast screening for women - Action Cancer.

David is no stranger to walking off the beaten track and has years of experience walking mountains.

He commented “I have walked parts of the Camino before but never in its entirety. The last 116km are very popular with walkers but I thought I would take on a bit of a challenge and give the full distance a go.

“There are lots of hostels along the way where I can lay my head and if they are full I’ve no problem laying out a sleeping bag and sleeping .”

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David began walking at the age of 15 when pupils from his school at Dalriada in Ballymoney would go to the Lake District and David for one, never looked back.

Even now he would walk up to 15kms around the Dromara Hills, sometimes carrying up to two bricks in his rucksack to prepare himself for the huge walk. Regularly he goes to Scotland and has altogether completed 173 of the 284 Munro Peaks that average aound 3,000 feet-plus high.

“I love walking, it keeps me in good health,” said David.

He won’t be alone doing the walk. He will be joined by a Spanish man that he met in Kerry who plans to walk for nine days.

The Way of St James, leads to the Cathedral of Santiago which is said to be built over the tomb of St James the Apostle. At the turn of the second millennium it became one of the most popular pilgrimage sites and today is used by both young and old for walking, cycling and horseback riding.

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Any funds raised from David’s trek will be used to fund Action Cancer’s range of lifesaving and support services which include digital breast screening for women aged 40–49 and over 70, counselling and complementary therapy available to anyone living with a cancer diagnosis as well as their families, health promotion including smoking cessation and why weight programmes and men’s MOT health checks.

Action Cancer Events and PR officer Leigh Chamberlain said, “We are delighted David has chosen to support Action Cancer with his trekking challenge. The Camino de Santiago is a trek of great significance as well as a tough challenge and we are very thankful for the support.”

There are 75,000 people in Northern Ireland living with cancer and as Action Cancer is a local charity all the funds raised from this trek will directly benefit those people. Action Cancer receive no government funding and so rely on fundraising initiatives such as this to help us raise our annual target of £3.5m which is the amount required to provide our local services.”