History of the walk
Peter Ward and I worked together in an office at RBS International for some 7 years and when I started doing the ITEX Longest Day walk in 1995 he wanted to do it too, but was away in the UK on a cricket trip with FICC. Over the next few years, the Itex walk weekend coincided with the FICC cricket trip, so Peter never got to do the walk. We did discuss (usually over a couple of pints) the possibility of organising a similar walk on the "shortest" day of the year. However, as with many such ideas, we never actually got around to getting it off the ground.
After a long brave fight against cancer, Peter passed away on 9 May 2002. In December of 2002 the RBS Corporate Trust team decided to organise a charity walk on the Shortest Day of the year, 21 December and together with five work colleagues of Peter and two other friends, we completed the first Peter Ward Memorial Mid-Winter walk. We succeeded in raising over £6,000 for charity and also got very wet in the process.
In 2003 we decided to extend the event to the general public and 36 people took part on yet another wet, cold and windy winter's day and in 2004 numbers increased yet again with 50 walkers getting very wet.
In 2005 it was decided to introduce a 25 mile challenge finishing at Wolf's Caves. This boosted the numbers with over 100 people registering for the walk and raising over £22,000. A particular attraction of the shorter challenge was the hospitality offered by the Church of Abundant Life at the Wolf's Caves finish and many a 44 miler was tempted to rest up their wet weary, feet and enjoy the home made cakes provided the church helpers.
The 2006 walk saw the introduction of the daytime challenge commencing from Wolf's Caves at 9.00 a.m. and finishing 19 miles later at Ouaisne. Both shorter challenges proved popular with walkers with 44 people doing one or the other in 2006 when over £15,000 was raised.
This year we will be following the same format and look forward to seeing you sometime in the day.
Since the start of the Mid-winter Walk we have raised over £65,000 for various charities including Jersey Mencap, Help an African Schoolchild and Fighting Motor Neurone Disease with Jersey Hospice being the main beneficiary receiving over £45,000.
The Peter Ward Memorial Mid-Winter Walk is registered with the Association of Jersey Charities Reg No 287.
