A 32-year-old woman from Abercarn has completed a gruelling 84-mile walk to raise money for St David’s Hospice.
Carla Jeffries, who ‘used to have to stop and sit down walking up the stairs’, walked the full length of Hadrian’s Wall – from Wallsend to Bowness-on-Solway – over six days in memory of her father, who died last year.
She started on August 26, and finished on August 31, which was her 32nd birthday.
Ms Jeffries said: “I did it in memory of my Dad, who we lost to cancer last year.
“St David’s looked after him well when he was in palliative care, and I wanted to give back to them, because there was such a noticeable difference in his care when we got him in St David’s.
“He was comfortable, he wasn’t in pain, and he was at peace, so that was the biggest driving force to raise so much money for them.”
Ms Jeffries initially set a fundraising target of £500, which she quickly surpassed, and by the time she completed her walk she had raised more than £1,700.
She said: “Once I’d completed the walk, I raised £1,700, and the kindness of strangers, it has absolutely floored me.
“So many people reached out to stay they related or St David’s had cared for their relatives, and I walked with a St David’s flag attached to my backpack so people would stop me and say ‘I can see you’re fundraising’ and they’d give me a bit of money – it was such an amazing sense of community spirit.”
Ms Jeffries planned to do the walk on her own - carrying a can of Abbot Ale for her Dad - but her sister surprised her on day three.
She said: “The plan was to do it on my own, but my sister surprised me on day three which I was grateful for – so I wasn’t going stir crazy.
“It took me six days, and it was brutal.
"I had some lovely blisters, and aches, and pains, but it got easier as it went on.”
However, it was the training for the challenge that has had the most impact on Ms Jeffries’ life.
She said: “When my Dad passed away, I was hitting the wine quite heavily and eating takeaways.
“I thought I need to do something to get back on track, so I thought Hadrian’s Wall – it’s a bucket list destination, I’d always wanted to do it.”
Ms Jeffries, who weighed more than 22 stone at her heaviest, started off by walking in her local area – mainly the Gwyddon Valley and Cwmcarn – however it snowballed from there, and more people started doing it with her.
She said: “After a while, more people were doing it with me, and they’d bring their dogs.
“We did Pen y Fan and the Blorenge, which was lovely in itself, because truthfully I’d always been too overweight and unfit to do Pen Y Fan.”
For Ms Jeffries, who has already lost seven stone and is hoping to lose another three, this is just the beginning.
She said: “I couldn’t save my Dad, but I’ve saved my own life with the weight loss and the lifestyle, and he would be so pleased.
“[If he knew about my challenge] I think initially he would have said ‘you must be off your head’ but he would have been immensely proud. Really, really proud.”
Ms Jeffries already has plans to climb Cadair Idris and Yr Wyddfa, and would love to complete another, similar challenge next year.
She said: “I would love to do another challenge, it’s so good for you mentally and physically and you really get a bug for it.
“It gives you a bit of purpose to give back to these wonderful charities that are so vital in the community.”
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