There and Back Again, A Managing Partner’s Tale by Adam Fletcher

Unfortunately, I was unable to accompany Team Ridley & Hall in this year’s Leeds 10k but I did promise that I was keen to help raise funds for our charity of the year.

The staff at Ridley & Hall decided to support MacMillan as the charity of the year for 2013/14 as cancer has had an impact on all the team. Several members of staff are still receiving treatment and support after being diagnosed with this disease. This became even more poignant in recent weeks when former colleague and founder of our Community Care team, Clive Yeadon sadly lost his long battle with cancer.

In a Eureka moment, I came up with the idea to do a sponsored walk home. What I had not factored in is the drive home of an hour each day was significantly different to walking door-to-door! The Highways Agency would not grant me permission to walk the most direct and, more importantly, the flattest route via the M62. This will mean that I have the joys of leaving Huddersfield across the mountain range from the foothills of Wakefield Road to the dizzy heights of Lepton, the National Coal Mining Museum, across the flats of Wakapulco (aka Wakefield) and making a final approach to Ponte Carlo via the flat cap territory of Featherstone, a door-to-door trip of 25 miles… or possibly ending at my local, the infamous Carleton Hotel, subject to them obtaining a late licence.

To tie in with the MacMillan World’s Biggest Coffee Morning, I plan to do this on Friday 27th September. Having undergone the Lexcel audit the day before, this could be seen as a walk in the park! I plan to come in early to the office and arrange for some clients and contacts to come in for a catch-up and a coffee as part of the MacMillan event and then set off at around 2pm.

Having never walked this distance before, it is unclear how long this will take me, but based on the scientific formula that is Google Maps, I hope to walk at 3 miles per hour. Over 25 miles, I reckon it will be around 10pm by the time I reach my final destination, wherever that may be!

I appreciate that there is a lot of great fundraising work going on at the moment, but it is my hope to raise at least £500. I have set up a justgiving site to link in to our Charity of the Year totaliser and would like to thank you all for your support.