A PENSIONER is set to complete the final miles of a 630 mile coastal walk he began with his wife as a tribute to her and the surgeon who trebled her length of survival from cancer.
Steve Walklate, 74, from Hedge End, will walk the remainder of the South West Coast Path – England's longest waymarked long-distance footpath and a National Trail – to raise funds for PLANETS Cancer Charity.
He made the pledge at wife Jane's funeral in January last year and has set aside three weekends between April and June this year for six walks of around 10 miles each across Devon from Torquay to Salcombe.
Jane was diagnosed with bowel and liver cancer in 2005 at the age of 55 and was taken under the care of consultant hepatobiliary surgeon Neil Pearce who explained that, after a course of chemotherapy, he would operate to remove a number of tumours.
Jane, a mother-of-three, continued teaching and tutoring maths to numerous students and even climbed the Three Peaks – Ben Nevis, Snowden and Scafell Pike - as well as completing 107 organised Parkruns between 2017 and 2019 after her diagnosis and initial treatment.
She encouraged Steve to join her on long walking ventures which included the Solent Way, Test Way, South Downs Way, West Highland Way and Cotswold Way before they embarked on the South West Coast Path.
In 2019, Jane’s cancers returned but were deemed inoperable, although she did embark on another course of chemotherapy which ended just before the Covid-19 pandemic first hit the UK in early 2020.
A few months later Jane's cancer had spread and, despite undergoing radiotherapy, she died at home on in December 2020.
Steve said: “Jane was truly inspirational and at her funeral in January 2021 I pledged to complete the remaining 55 miles of the trail as a tribute to her, inviting family and friends to join me.
“This is our tribute to her and also a very definite thank you to a man and his colleagues who took a risk and provided Jane with 15-and-a-half more years of life.
“I and all of those participating with me intend to complete the last section during the first weekend of June which would have been our Golden wedding anniversary.
“Any sponsorship resulting will go the charity established by Mr Pearce and his team – PLANETS– which among other things aims to fund groundbreaking equipment.”
To find out more about Steve's walk and to donate, visit: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/steve-walklate.
To find out more about PLANETS visit: www.planetscharity.org.uk.
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