We walked around the world

It’s been a fantastic year for grant-making breast cancer charity, Walk the Walk. 2017 saw them celebrate 20 years of their most iconic event, The MoonWalk London, and raise almost £7.5million. Walk the Walk has now raised £121 million over the last 21 years.

Thanks to the thousands of women, men and children taking part in Walk the Walk’s challenges, the charity has been able to make some fantastic grants this year. This includes granting £1.8million to Breast Cancer Now to fund vital research projects which are crucial in the fight against breast cancer.

This grant will bring scientists closer to finding targeted treatments for triple negative breast cancer. It will help understand how to overcome resistance to treatments, how we can target breast cancer with new drugs, as well as looking into how to stop secondary breast cancer in its tracks.

This grant is helping Walk the Walk and Breast Cancer Now move closer to their 2050 goal, where everyone who develops breast cancer will live.

Walk the Walk received some very generous donations this year, including £50,000 from Squire Patton Boggs. The money has been raised over the last three years, through employees at the law firm taking part in The MoonWalk London.  A super-size cheque was presented to founder and chief executive, Nina Barough at their London  office.

“I felt very honoured to receive the cheque for £50,000 from the team at Squire Patton Boggs.

“It’s a wonderful example of how from small beginnings with one or two people walking, this tiny acorn has grown and is now involving many people within the company, not only committed to raising money for Walk the Walk and our breast cancer causes, but also achieving their personal goals which is incredibly empowering in the workplace.

“It looks like in 2018 there will be an even larger team taking part. Their everyday work will be business as usual, but with the added injection of fun and activity as the walkers start training for The MoonWalk.”

A round-up of 2017 Walk the Walk events:

February – Arctic explorers tackled the charity’s backcountry skiing marathon in the wilderness starting within the Abisko National Park, in the most northern part of Sweden in the Subarctic Circle. During this once-in-a-lifetime journey, walkers got to see The Northern Lights and even came across moose and reindeer on their travels!

April – The charity’s walkers were easy to spot in their decorated bras at the London Marathon, standing out from the sea of running vests.

May – Walk the Walk’s MoonWalk London celebrated its 20th year on May 13 when 15,000 women and men donned decorated bras laden with fringing and feathers as they partied harder than Gatsby at the Roaring Twenties themed night-time challenge. It is a one-of-a-kind experience, with more than £6million being raised in one night as walkers pound the pavements of the Capital, completing either the Half Moon (15.1 miles) or the Full Moon (26.2 miles) distance. Later that month, a herd of hard-core Walkers faced the London to Brighton Challenge covering 100km. “This adventure is largely off-road and often sees people walking for more than 24 hours.

June – Thousands of Walkers went wild at The MoonWalk Scotland, on 10th June. This year, the charity celebrated reaching a £20 million fundraising milestone in Scotland. Eighty-three walkers embarked upon The MoonWalk Iceland in June. This fun-filled, jam-packed trip sees travelers walking up and down volcanoes and going whale watching before setting off on their midnight marathon! This event isn’t for the faint hearted! Walkers faced a challenge with a difference as they embraced the Inca Trail in Peru. The team took on a 45 kilometre trek which passed through the Sun Gate to the world-famous Inca ruins of Machu Picchu.

September – Walkers got into character as they took on The Disneyland Paris challenge. This event known as bibbidi bobbidi bo includes a 10k and a half marathon and takes place across the two Disneyland Parks – Disney Studios and Disneyland. That same month, a party of supporters completed the world’s biggest half marathon – the Great North Run, a team completed The Berlin Marathon and others completed the Thames Path Challenge.

October –  Walkers headed to Ireland for the Dublin Marathon. The event saw the team passing through many of Dublin’s famous Georgian streets, starting near the famous Trinity College, crossing the city, north and south of the river Liffy.

November – The New York City Marathon saw Walk the Walk’s Founder, Nina Barough, leading a troop of walkers for the much-loved challenge. This event is where Walk the Walk had its beginnings, after Nina dreamt about taking part wearing a decorated bra, and turned this into a reality back in 1996.

To find out more about Walk the Walk, or to sign up for any of their events visit
www.walkthewalk.org