Six men from Llandudno are walking backwards and blindfolded from Llandudno to Chester and back again to raise money for three charities including Blind Veterans UK, the national charity for vision-impaired ex-Service men and women.
Owner of the town’s Tynedale Hotel, Nathan Midgley, his son-in-law Sam Midgley-Davies and four of their friends and colleagues, who call themselves the Llandudno Vikings, will be setting off on the 108-mile challenge at 10am on 16 December from the Llandudno War Memorial.
The group, aged between 18 and 54, anticipate the challenge will take around 60 hours to complete and they hope to finish at around 10pm on Sunday 18 December.
They have chosen to split the money they raise equally between Blind Veterans UK, Macmillan Cancer Support and the Welsh Air Ambulance Charitable Trust.
Sam Midgley-Davies said:
“Our challenge was inspired by The Goons song ‘Walking backwards to Christmas’ and the blindfolded element has been inspired by the challenges endured by blind veterans every single day and we want to pay homage to that.
“We all live in or around Llandudno where Blind Veterans UK has one of its centres of wellbeing, so the charity is close to our hearts.
“This is the second time we will have taken on a challenge like this in support of Blind Veterans UK, in 2018 we set off to walk blindfolded and backwards to Chester, raising over £3,000, but this year we have added the return leg to make it even harder for ourselves.
“We’ll be joined by a fantastic team of forward walking volunteers acting as our guides and we couldn’t do this without them.
“We’re all feeling really positive about the challenge, we will start and we will finish and hopefully our efforts will make a difference to those supported by our chosen charities this Christmas.”
So far the Llandudno Vikings have raised £6,543 to be split between the three charities. If you would like to support them in raising even more, please visit their fundraising page here: givewheel.com/the-big-blindfolded-backwards-walk
If you are inspired by the Llandudno Vikings and would like to take on a challenge for Blind Veterans UK visit the charity’s website: blindveterans.org.uk/fundraise
Blind Veterans UK supports thousands of blind veterans across the country, but knows there are many thousands more who still need its support to rebuild their lives after sight loss.
If you, or someone you know, served in the Armed Forces, including National Service, and are now struggling with sight loss, then please get in touch. Call 0800 389 7979 or visit blindveterans.org.uk/support
