Million step challenge 1st October to January 1st 2022. Week 1

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Million step challenge 1st October to January 1st 2022 .

The first week of the million step challenge has been completed and has been an emotional time for me personally ,

On day 6 of my challenge my mother passed away 6th October 2021 which was unexpected and hit all the family hard. The million step challenge has helped me deal with the emotions of loosing a loved one in the fact that rather then feel sad and upset it has given me time whilst out walking to think about all the good times I had with my mum and the family .

Its strange how memories come flooding back ? one in particular was when I had been fishing on the river Cam at Jesus Green lock aged 11 and it was time to pack ready for my mother to pick me up in the car but my fishing rod would not come apart?

At the time there were a group of Hells Angels sitting on the park bench behind me and they had seen my plight and kindly offered to try to pull the rod apart for me, Now from a distance this quite clearly did not look the case in my mothers eyes as she came running over the footbridge to confront these big fellas in their leathers ? And yes these lads backed off for fear of what my mum would do to them. Once I explained they were in fact helping me she thanked them and they laughed and said she had damaged their street cred.

It is surprising how things you have not thought about for years reappear in your mind but this was something really positive to remember and a reminder to me to avoid negative thoughts when possible.

The Mick George annual charity football match took place on Friday 8th October at The Abbey stadium and again it was an evening to remember not just for the result and the way the game was played or the 3K that was raised but for the conversation I had with two people playing in the game.

Full on discussions about both my mental health journey and theirs and the positives about how they both felt having come through troubling times. This again showed the power of talking to each other.

Anyway back to the million steps, I have really enjoyed the start of the challenge and pleased to see that a few donations have come in on the Just-giving page and pleased to have completed 103.706 steps.

I plan to do regular updates and hopefully have some guests join me on the steps ahead.

Thanks for your support

Ian Darler