Sam's amazing 75 mile fundraising walk

Leading wealth management company Brooks Macdonald are celebrating 30 years in the business this year by supporting the Trust through a number of fundraising activities over the next twelve months. One of the first activities was completed by Sam Garrad who walked the 75 miles from his office in Bury St Edmonds to the London office. We caught up with Sam a few days after he’d completed his challenge. 

I have our managing director Robin Eggar to blame for this! I had mentioned fundraising ideas to him in the pub when he came up to our office in Bury St Edmunds. I said I was thinking of either doing Snowdon 7 times in 7 days or as I hadn’t been to our new London office at that point, it could be an idea to walk there. He liked the walking idea as it had a better ring to it, so I said I’d have a think about it over the next few days. Not too long later whilst I was on study leave a colleague messaged me to let me know Robin had kindly announced on our company wide town hall meeting that ‘someone’ in our Bury office was going to be walking to London, so my mind was made up right there and then! 

I was very lucky that the weather was absolutely stunning the entire time I was walking. The countryside scenery was idyllic the entire way except for the last day as I crossed over the M25 which quite quickly turned from yellow rapeseed fields and oak trees into grey concrete buildings and roads! Getting to see and take in the views were definitely the highlight as well as all of the support I had from friends and family before, along the way and after really helped too. Getting a tan didn’t hurt either! Besides the expected feet and leg pain that comes with such a long walk I can’t complain much, except the blisters…the many, many blisters! 

The final day was definitely the toughest so with each mile I gradually got closer to finishing, the happier I got, and when I arrived it was good to see some familiar faces and have a good chat to everyone in the London office. I think it goes without saying the well-earned pints at the end of the walk felt very rewarding! 

Over the last couple of years during the pandemic it has been difficult to get involved in events and things as we usually would. I think it’s because of this it gave me the drive to really get stuck in and go for it, especially for such an amazing charity. The generosity of people really showed with the number of donations I received which enabled me to surpass my fundraising target.  

I’m also taking part on the survival island challenge with colleagues from Brooks Macdonald at the end of May and I’m really excited to be taking part and learning from survival experts and getting to know colleagues from other offices better as part of the trip. 

Everyone at the Trust sends a huge thank you to Sam for his amazing walk, his current total stands at time of writing at £1020 and if you wish to support him you can sponsor him here. If Sam's story has inspired you, we'd love for you to sign up to the Starting Blocks Challenge and #gobacktogiveback.