Jackie and son, Matt, share their story of their travels on foot to raise funds and awareness of Fragile X
Jackie tells us: "After the bonkers summer of 2020 and the challenge of keeping @mattakafragilextraveller entertained while he was furloughed for 8 months, on Covid-19 cancelled Christmas Day I set myself another crazy challenge to walk 1.5 million steps before Easter Sunday to raise funds and awareness of Fragile X Syndrome and just to torture myself a little more I did Dry January!!!
I started on 27th December averaging 20,000 steps a day then decided 4 weeks into the challenge with over 600,000 steps completed I would up the anti to 2 million steps!
For those of you that follow myself @fragilexmum or @mattakafragilextraveller on Instagram you’ll know Harvey our dog and Matt joined me on many walks. Matt had a few choice words to share predominately about not having a holiday last year and discarded facemasks (fingers crossed we move on to a new complaint soon!). We chatted to so many people on our travels, all are now aware of Fragile X Syndrome and the associated conditions.
The weather has mostly been kind to us. I have been out every day except for two icy days when it was too dangerous to walk. We have watched winter turn to spring enjoying the beautiful spring sunshine, flowers and blossom. We took so many photographs; Matt has chosen a few to share (below). Our longest walk was 14.08 miles. We both slept well that night!"
"We kept a tally of my steps on Instagram and went for our final walk on 26th March. It was Matt’s 32nd birthday so a fitting day to complete the challenge!! It took just 90 days (8 days ahead of schedule) averaging 22,222 steps per day and we are delighted to have smashed our fundraising target!"
Jackie adds:
"I can highly recommend walking. It has a calming effect on Matt (he normally does everything at maximum speed) and it has lifted our mood during this winter lockdown so we will certainly be keeping it up!"
Thank you Jackie and Matt for your amazing step challenge, and for raising both funds and awareness for Fragile X! We are so grateful for your support. If you have any stories you would like to share, please get in touch.