One week

It’s now only a week until we make the first footsteps along Hadrian’s Walk.

One week. Surely that’s not right? There was an entire year to go last time I looked.

To be honest I feel like I am at the eye of a storm. My guts tell me I should be engaged in a flurry of last minute preparation and activity,but when I look around I can’t find much to actually do.

The beds have been booked, the route mapped out, the press releases written. There is still a ton of fundraising left to do of course. We’re currently on £13,898, an impressive amount, but quite a bit short of our £20,000 target.

That total doesn’t include offline sales of raffle tickets though, or money that people have raised through traditional paper sponsorship forms and the like. However it’s still going to be tight.

Sometimes when organising stuff like this it can be easy to get focused on numbers. Getting the “total raised” to the highest possible figure without stopping and reflecting on the reason why it’s important to do as well as you can.

Two years ago 12 year old Jordan was found by his 19 year old sister hanged in his bedroom. Shortly beforehand he’d had an argument with her about who was going to walk their dogs. It’s believed that he’d done it as a practical joke, but that it went tragically wrong. There was no evidence that he was troubled, and he had been talking enthusiastically about upcoming events.

Jordan’s mum, Carole, was at work when she got a telephone call from her daughter.

“She was hysterical,” Carole said. “All I could make out were the words ‘Jordan’, ‘ambulance’ and ‘dead’. I remember it so clearly. I was standing there and my legs just gave way and I ended up in a heap on the floor. I sat there for a good five minutes not able to move. Deep down I knew he had gone.”

Carole’s daughter moved out of the house shortly after Jordan’s death, too traumatized by what happened to cope with staying. Carole was left alone in what had been a busy and happy home.

“Even now, sometimes I still look out of the window at 3.30pm expecting to see him come in from school. It’s like he has gone to his friend’s for a few minutes. It’s like I’m looking down on someone else going through this, it doesn’t seem real. The thought of never seeing him again is just unbearable.”

For a while she considered suicide herself, but was helped struggle on by the help of her friends and family.

And this is where the Joseph Salmon Trust came in. Carol is a single mum who works as a care assistant. She would have struggled to meet the costs of the funeral on her own.

“A headstone is so expensive and like most parents you don’t really make provisions for your child’s death. I’ve got life insurance but you don’t think about using it for your children – you don’t expect them to die before you.”

Because the charity’s bank account had been so boosted by the money raised by the last walk I organised they were able to pay for Jordan’s headstone; two thousand pounds that Carole would have found it hard to find otherwise. They were able to help Carole meet the final needs of her son, something invaluable in helping her cope with her grief.

It is testament to how important the Trust’s help was to Carol that she decided that she herself wanted to help raise funds for the charity. In a fundraiser at the village hall Carole, her daughter, and her friends raised £2200, which not only matched but exceeded the money the Trust gave her.

“In one respect I was so grateful to the trust because I just didn’t have the finances to be able to cover it.” said Carole “But in another way this was the last thing I could do for Jordan and I’m so happy that I can give this money to help someone who finds themselves in my position in future.”

I met Carole and her daughter around a year ago as I agreed to take some photo’s of them presenting a check to Neil to send to the local paper. The respect and admiration I have for them is immense. And while Carole has effectively “paid back” the money the Trust gave her, the charity would never have been able to grant her money in the first place if it wasn’t for the generous donations by people such as yourself.

All of the information I’ve given here is in the public domain and has been featured in the local paper. The details of people helped by the Trust is obviously usually confidential, but Carole herself chose to go public in order to publicize the charity.

Even if you’ve already donated to the walk (and most of you very wonderful people have) you can always buy a Buff to support us as well. Here they are modeled by their designers (and Hadrian’s Walkers) Mark Wilson and Oli Walker.

If you don’t want to buy a buff you can still donate here or buy a raffle ticket here of course.

Even if it’s just a £1, every penny goes directly to the charity and directly to the people who need it most.

Many thanks to Promotional Codes for their recent support.

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Related posts:

1. Jordan
2. Fat Club, Week One
3. Fat Club: Week Two
4. Superhero Week Day Four: Comic Book Q&A
5. Superhero Week Day Five: Why I don’t like heroes