Not all injuries are visable..

Hi, last year I walked 800km, unsupported, across Spain, along the Camino De Santiago, which is part of the pilgrim network of walks, all ending in Santiago De Compostela, with a very good friend who is a medically retired firefighter with the London Fire Brigade. He was diagnosed with a rare cancer, & during his cancer treatment, was diagnosed with PTSD. After spending his entire 30 year career at North Kensington, he had dealt with, the Ladbrooke Grove train crash, 7/7 tube bombings, & Grenfell, amongst other things. With nothing to do, for upto 10 hours a day, but put 1 foot in front of the other, allowed us the time to talk, about our life experiences, & how we're have been affected.

The Curtis Palmer Program, (CPP) was originally part of Pilgrims Bandits, a military charity, that takes injured service personnel & pushes them both physically & mentally so they may carry on living a full life. Fast forward, the CPP recognises the often stressful work of the police & other emergency services, having close family & friends, in all the emergency services,I have seen 1st hand the impact that their jobs has on their metal, & physical wellbeing.

At the end of July, I'm assisting the CPP on a Norwegian kayaking expedition, where after a 2 day hike, we will then kayak up the fjords, rough camping along the way, for a further 6 days, there's going to be a double military amputee, a single leg military amputee, a serving police officer with stage 4 cancer, a police widow, other medically retired police officers with PTSD, a medically retired firefighter with motor neurone disease, & another firefighter with cancer .....so I will have my hands full.

So, in order to raise awareness & funds for the CPP I'm going to walk another Camino, but a different route, & longer, it goes across the northern coastal path of Spain, & is nearly 900km, again this is unsupported, its starts in Irun, North East Spain, then eventually drops down through Central Spain, to Santiago De Compostela.

There are quite a few military charities, that will take personnel on expeditions, but none for the police, & other services, the CPP embraces the NHS's 5 stages for mental wellbeing:

Learn new skills

Connect with other people

Give to others

Be physically active

Pay attention to the present moment.

Any money that you give will enable the CPP to assist those who are at their lowest ebb, & make them realise that there is help if needed for this invisible injury. Not everyone has a close family or friends network, or the stubbornness to walk long distances, to assist them in their wellbeing.

I will start my little walk at the beginning of June, & will take me approximately 5 weeks to complete.

Thanks for reading

Graham