Friends, Mark Wheatley, Jon Brookes, Paul Edwards and Pete Hughes are walking the West Highland Way in late September 2025. This is a 96 mile walk from Milngavie (near Glasgow) to Fort William and will take 7 days to complete. Our preparation has been focused around walking locally, mainly on Cannock Chase.

Our good friend and golf buddy Steve Hemsley (The Voice) was diagnosed 2 months ago with Progressive Bulbar Palsy (PBP) a form of Motor Neurone Disease (MND) which is a rare neurological condition that effects balance, movement, breathing, speech and swallowing.

The four of us want to offer our support to Steve and one way we can do this is by trying to raise funds for The Matt Gallagher Foundation, an organisation now very dear to Steve, and any donation will help make an impact.

Steve is doing his part to try find a future cure for MND and has signed up to support and participate in the research, clinical trials and genome mapping in Uni's Edinburgh, Oxford and Sheffield. He intends to make direct contributions in body and funds to these longer term initiatives.

But Matt's foundation is about the here and now. The MND nurse Steve has recently met is in fact funded by his foundation. In Steve's own words "all my immediate speech, feeding and breathing challenges - my quality of life - are enhanced locally by this foundation. I am one of only 283 MND patients currently in the greater West Midlands area. So this clearer local focus I now relate to. I am minded to help and add my weight to this effort. If this also aligns with you and you can support the foundation - then words can't adequately express my gratitude".

Thank you for any contribution you can make - Mark, Jon, Paul & Pete