CEO blog post: Recent vegan sporting achievements
A chance to grow
In recent days we have seen Olympians achieve amazing results, personal bests and world record times. The Olympic Games inspire many. Four alternative recent achievements, all vegan endurance events, have inspired me greatly.
630 miles
My vegan friend Dr Nicola Rooney sent an SMS yesterday that she had completed her mammoth walk, the 630 mile south west coast path from Minehead in Somerset to Poole in Dorset. Nikki set off on 21st June, and over 35 of her friends trailed along at different stages. I was one of them, walking the beautiful Devon stretch from Plymouth to Salcombe from 23-25 July (remember, those glorious days?).
Whereas her two other friends and I had several minor injuries impeding our walking, Nikki plodded on undisturbed, regardless of the state some of her toes were in. I was in awe. Her sense of humour kept us going, as well as the pace she set the second afternoon when we had limited time between our wading crossing on the Erme river around 1pm and catching the last ferry before 4pm on the Avon river to Bantham five miles ahead. There was a great sense of relief when the ferry man took us across and we celebrated in a lovely café overlooking the Avon, although we still had about 3 miles to walk to Hope Cove, making it a 10.5 hour day. The last day, for me anyway as Nikki still had nearly two weeks to go, was relatively easy with only 7 miles to go to Salcombe.
Nikki completed this challenge to raise money for a new charity she is starting up, ‘A Chance To Grow’, aimed at “helping hard-working and dedicated young people get the education they deserve and give small grants to community groups to help them build a sustainable future.” Focusing on crop growing, the aims are similar to vegan organisations such as HIPPO (www.hippocharity.org.uk/) and VegFam (www.vegfamcharity.org.uk/).
