Three generations prepare for charity walk

The Horan family

Three generations of a Rochdale family are getting ready to take part in a 82 mile walk to raise money for Parkinson’s UK Rochdale Branch.

Ken Horan, 65, will walk from Nottingham to Heywood Cricket Club with his daughter Julie 41 and granddaughter Tabitha, 17 in the first week of August.

The trio will leave Nottingham, where they will stay with Mr Horan’s son, on Monday 2 August and make their way to Rochdale for a special reception on Friday 6 August.

On their arrival back in Rochdale they will be welcomed by friends and family a brass band and the Mayor of Rochdale, Councillor Zulfiqar Ali.

Mr Horan from Heywood is a keen walker,  he said: “We are all really looking forward to it. This is the fourth year I will have done the walk. The first time I did it with my son who lives in Nottingham, but we did it the other way around and finished there.

“Last year I raised over £2000 and this time I would like to do better than that again.

“I have been training and today I have walked 10 miles. It seems the walk gets longer and the hills get steeper every time!”

Mr Horan explained why he is raising money for Parkinson’s UK: “My wife and I have a friend who suffers from Parkinson’s and she has been poorly for a while.

“It first began when money was being raised for a Parkinson’s nurse and it has really just gone from there.”

The Horan family will walk around 15 miles a day, with a grueling 24 miles on the second day and have stops along the way.

Mr Horan concluded: “I would like to thank everybody who has sponsored us, we are all really looking forward to it.”