If you wish to assist me to get to London and to do charity walk around Britain -

Unfortunately due to lack of sponsorship, this walk has now been pushed back to 2009. Hopefully this will give us sufficient time to raise funds.

---

As I had done before my heart surgery in 1997, I continued to do after it - helping charitable organisations. I've drafted trust deeds and got them accepted by New Zealand Inland Revenue and the Companies (and Trusts and Incorporated Societies) Office for charitable status and tax exemption; I've raised funds; I've been the editor of the Kawera Grey Power newsletter; I've been the founding editor of the local Kawerau Voice community newspaper; I've been a founding committee member and the first fundraising officer of the local Kawerau Radio Station.

Now, I'm trying to raise funds so that I may realise a long-held dream to go to Britain and walk from London to Edinburgh (some 560 miles miles the way I've planned the route) in aid of The British Heart Foundation and The Rett Syndrome Association (U. K.). Possibly - most probably, in fact - the Walk will then be extended to be a walk around Britain (an estimated 2473 miles).
This has now been updated as proposed. The walk is to be some 2,489 miles long. I知 trying to get a charity team place in the London Marathon on 26 April 2009 for publicity purposes as well as raising funds during the Marathon. I値l use www.justgiving.com for donations to each of the charities. I知 planning to start the charity from London on 29 April 2009, and arrive back in London on or about 24 September. You can see details of the itinerary at my website here.
 

---

 

The rest of this page below I have left untouched, as it reflects back to some of the history/events of this this walk.

 

---

 

Hi,

Thank you for your reply and your good wishes. Yesterday a friend and I did a 32 kms charity walk for our local community radio station - Radio Kawerau.

I *am* interested in discussing further my planned charity walk around Britain, and so I'm cc'ing this to your NZ and UK distributors, and hope that each of them will email me re any questions, requirements, etc.
 

I'm also cc'ing to a few of my British supporters to keep them informed of a positive outcome from one of my emails to potential sponsor companies. I will send my draft book to your distributors if they ask me to do so.
I don't think they will find it *too* boring, but they will glean a lot of essential information from it.

Best Regards,

David Paterson

---

What an exciting fortnight it's been!  Following the AGM of Radio Kawerau and learning of its need for extra funding as soon as possible (a situation known only too well by most charitable organisations), I'm back as a volunteer there. I've been helping to get letters out to local businesses offering a fantastic radio advertising deal - their own promotional, made with help at the station, broadcast 5 times per day until the end of the year, at a cost of only $100! And I'm helping at the station in any way I can. But, it got better! The new Production Manager, Marlon Fitzpatrick, about 3 weeks ago uploaded the station's output onto the internet, so these promotionals not only are being heard by Kawerau people on their computers, but can be heard anywhere in the world! This means that it is more viable now for Radio Kawerau to increase the number of its advertisers in Whakatane and other places outside of the Kawerau area! The station's new website http://radiokawerau.bravehost.com has a link to the station's output, for those who want to test its content.

 

I was on air on Friday as a guest of the Station Manager, David Titshall, on his programme "My Kind of People", mainly to talk about my planned charity walk around Britain (which most people know about by now), and we had an interesting hour of talking about almost everything else but that. However, one caller challenged me to do a charity walk in aid of funds for Radio Kawerau, and I gave some thought to walking Kawerau to Whakatane and return, some 80 kms. By coincidence, the following day I was talking to a stallholder at the Ohope Craft Market. Walking is his sport, and he asked me if I'd heard of the Centurions Club. No, I hadn't. There are Centurion Clubs in many parts of the world, and membership is restricted to those who have walked 100 kms in a 24-hour period, under certain conditions. The stallholder lives in Kawerau, and he said he had had a hankering to become a Centurion, so we soon agreed to look at doing the 100 instead of the 80 kms. One other person has already offered to join us in this walk. All as a fundraising effort for Radio Kawerau. So, we are finding out from the N. Z. Centurion Club organisers what the conditions are, to see whether we can put on such an event here in Kawerau. I'll keep you posted on this, of course.

At first we contemplated extending the Kawerau-Whakatane-Kawerau walk to make it 100 kms, but we realise that most likely we'll have to do the walking on a measured track - possiblt the 400-metre track at Prideaux Park. That would make for easier logistics, indeed. This might happen in October. It'll take a bit of time to arrange the track, people to do the recording of the circuits walked by each walker, etc. Possibly we could have some craft and food stalls there, with a reasonable contribution to the fundraising for Radio Kawerau? We'll listen to any thoughts from your readers on all of this. And, if anyone wants to have a go at the 100kms walk and become eligible to be a Centurion, we'll look at that as long as there is a quid pro quo for Radio Kawerau in it.

Reading in your paper of the apostrophe selling for $100, I tried to use TradeMe to auction the publishing copyrights of my manuscript book about my planned charity walk in Britain - towards my fundraising to make that walk possible. Sadly, after about 40 viewers had looked at my auction, the managers of TradeMe decided to withdraw my auction from the site. I had apparently breached their terms and conditions. Ah, well - got to try everything!

As you read this letter in the Beacon (if it is published Tuesday or Wednesday), My wife and I'll be in Auckland visiting our son, Robert, who is in a rehabilitation centre following amputation of a leg due to
almost a lifetime of diabetes. To those who asked how he is, I can say he is coping amazingly well.
And then, back to Kawerau to give a hand at Radio Kawerau, and do something like selling raffle tickets at the Woodskills Weekend.

David Paterson
23 Ballantrae
Kawerau
323 6680
tkr0013@iconz.co.nz
 

 

 

Unfortunately due to lack of sponsorship, this walk has now been pushed back to 2007. Hopefully this will give us sufficient time to raise funds.

 

As I had done before my heart surgery in 1997, I continued to do after it - helping charitable organisations. I've drafted trust deeds and got them accepted by New Zealand Inland Revenue and the Companies (and Trusts and Incorporated Societies) Office for charitable status and tax exemption; I've raised funds; I've been the editor of the Kawera Grey Power newsletter; I've been the founding editor of the local Kawerau Voice community newspaper; I've been a founding committee member and the first fundraising officer of the local Kawerau Radio Station.

Now, I'm trying to raise funds so that I may realise a long-held dream to go to Britain and walk from London to Edinburgh (some 560 miles miles the way I've planned the route) in aid of The British Heart Foundation and The Rett Syndrome Association (U. K.). Possibly - most probably, in fact - the Walk will then be extended to be a walk around Britain (an estimated 2473 miles).

A friend, Peter, who lives in Hereford, England, and who unexpectedly and suddenly, has just recently undergone similar surgery, is to accompany me. I'm 64 years old, and Peter is a bit younger. The photo (the one with only one head) is about two years old, and shows how fit I am now, and raring to go Walk.

Me in Training

Check out my new website here.

As a pensioner who is quite literally financially broke, I am seeking sponsors for my attempt. I need to raise the money to get me from New Zealand to London in the first place. To this end I've auctioned two WW1 medals and a 1956 Imperial Service Medal which were awarded to 29599 Private James William Silvester from London, who served in the New Zealand army and was wounded at Passchendaele in October 1917.

In the time that the auction was running I was given a donation of NZ$100 to get my passport as soon as possible. I did, and phoned my application to get on the last of the 'Millionaire' shows in 2005. I missed out, and I'll have to apply again early in 2006.

I hope to start the Walk/run in London in April or May 2006, and it should take about 120 days(four months).

If you would like more information, or support me, or get a free PDF format copy of the draft pages of my book (some 60 A5 pages so far), please send an email to me at tkr0013@iconz.co.nz or at
margaretpaterson.paterson@gmail.com.

With me is my first sponsor, Colin Carey, of Value for Money Autos.

Either direct financial assistance to get me to Britain next year, or a pledge of support in donation or kind when we are under way from London, would be appreciated.

We have managed to get some sponsorship from: Ultra: New Zealand Made premium  Dog Food. Check out the information on their site here: