Why is Al doing this?

Why am I undertaking this walk? Well, essentially to raise money for four charities: The Little Princess Trust, The Teenage Cancer Trust, Breakthrough Breast Cancer and the Parkinson’s Disease Society. My paternal grandparents succumbed to breast and stomach cancer respectively and my mum also fought breast cancer for a decade before finally being given the all-clear a few years ago, although that shadow is always hanging over her, so to speak. Also my dad is a Parkinson’s sufferer so ostensibly, this walk is for them. However. it’s also for my daughter Harriet and niece Jessica and anyone else who has been or will be affected, young and old, either personally or by association, in the years to come.

Obviously I am not going to be climbing on soap-boxes or banging on doors to make people aware of these diseases; you, the public are already pretty well informed. No, this walk is, as well as a fundraiser, a kind of call to arms to the Government, a challenge if you like to, for the first time, designate a serious, set amount of money for research into these diseases. How much of our tax money is squandered on implementing utterly pointless laws or funding a prince to pick up his girlfriend in a helicopter? For example, it cost millions to push through parliament the law to make talking on a mobile phone illegal, when that particular transgression could easily have been covered by the ‘careless driving’ umbrella. And why can’t the duty paid on tobacco and alcohol be spent on research and the building of hospitals?

All this of course, is entry level thinking but it’s action that’s required. This is why, when I arrive back in Brighton sometime in early 2010, having completed my walk, I will then, after a pint, be walking a further 53 miles to Downing Street to hand in the petition that I hope you will all sign requesting a firm commitment to funding and research. Please sign the petition; you can find it by clicking on the ‘causes’ box at the top of the page.

Many thanks
Alaric , August 2008