Gruelling 48-mile charity trek between Rochdale and Blackpool raises over £4,000 for local armed forces communities and Springhill Hospice

Date published: 06 June 2023

A gruelling 48-mile charity trek between Rochdale and Blackpool has raised over £4,000 for local armed forces communities and Springhill Hospice.

The Get Together After Serving walk took place on 27 May, seeing 21 people walking from Springhill Hospice to Blackpool Tower in the blistering heat, raising money for the hospice, Get Together After Serving CIC – which helps military veterans reintegrate into civilian life – and the Rochdale Masters rugby team.

The day started at the hospice at 5am before finishing at Blackpool Tower at 8.30pm - with much-needed pit stops in Edenfield, Blackburn and Preston.

Get Together After Serving has raised £1,707 towards the causes, with Rochdale Masters raising an additional £2,216.

Adam Trennery, founder of Get Together After Serving, said: “Thank you to everyone who has donated. It makes all the pain so much more worth it, knowing we have the support from our community.

“We still want to raise another £2,000 if possible.”

Partaking on the day were Rochdale Masters founder Carl Abraham and fellow Masters players Richard Higgs, Warren Trennery and David Ramsbottom.

On arrival at the Tower, an exhausted Carl said: “We can’t put into words how proud we are to complete such a mental and physically demanding challenge and continue to be overwhelmed by the support we’ve received so far.

“People personally donating, sharing our journey via social media during the challenge definitely inspired us and gave us the motivation to keep going when little voices in our heads were saying stop.”

“We can proudly say we’ve smashed our initial target of £1,000 with a special mention going to the Manchester branch of Rotork for their generous donation that went a long way in helping us achieve our impressive total.

“At the time of publication, the Masters team has raised over £2,216 that will now be split equally between the three causes.”

Richard added: “Knowing that the money raised will make such a difference and support the important work that they conduct within our community can only inspire us to and were already looking forward to attempting more challenges with hopefully more Masters joining in the future.”

Donations can still be made via GoFundMe at:

• Rochdale Masters
• Get Together After Serving