Severely disabled Huddersfield man Stephen Collins who tackled his toughest ever fundraising challenge in April has revealed he has two more huge charity walks planned.
The 65-year-old – who needs a rollator frame to walk – raised money for charity by walking 7.5 miles from Slaithwaite to Castle Hill in April, including scaling the foreboding Lockwood Scar which is arguably Huddersfield’s steepest street.
He did it in eight hours to raise more than £2,377 for Ruddi’s Retreat in Slaithwaite, smashing his target of £1,500.
The charity provides free caravan breaks for families with children battling serious illnesses such as cancer, have life-limiting conditions or have suffered bereavement. The charity has four caravans on the Primrose Valley Holiday Park near Filey and a fifth near Blackpool.
After Stephen conquered his April challenge the company which made his old rollator, Rehasense, was so impressed they gave him a brand new one for free.
Now Stephen has plans for two more massive charity walks – one this year and the other in 2025.
He said: “Both will be for Ruddi’s as it’s such a great little charity.”
On Saturday, September 14 he will be walking around Greenhead Park for 24 hours, starting at 10am. Stephen is a familiar sight there as he does most of his training in the park and has become something of a cult figure to people taking part in the 5k Parkrun every Saturday morning.
It takes him about an hour to do a circuit of the park.
Ruddi’s Retreat assistant manager Vicki Green and Stephen’s daughter, Rose, will be walking with Stephen all night, along with his labrador puppy Norman.
Stephen will be 66 on Monday, April 21, 2025 and to mark it will take on his ultra marathon, walking 12.5 miles from Slaithwaite to Emley Moor mast which he thinks will take 15 hours.
He hopes both walks will raise a combined total of £10,000 for Ruddi’s.
Stephen, of Longwood, has cerebral palsy and doctors told his parents when he was a baby he would never walk but, continually encouraged and supported by his parents, Stephen certainly proved the medics wrong.
He has done several sponsored walks before – including 35 miles in a week around Greenhead Park – to raise thousands of pounds for Cancer Research UK after losing both his dad, Walter, and sister-in-law, Maureen, to cancer.
Stephen was well-known as an entrepreneur, running his own successful mobility equipment business, Lazarus Mobility, and was mentored by Dragons Den star Duncan Bannatyne.
To support Stephen please donate HERE
Written by ANDY HIRST who runs his own Yorkshire freelance journalism agency AH! PR (https://ah-pr.com/) specialising in press releases, blogging, website content and copywriting.
