One man’s challenge to walk 240 miles for Christians Against Poverty
Melanie May | 16 June 2016 | News
A man is walking from Lancashire to London to raise funds for the charity that helped him get off the streets.
Ashley Parkinson spent three months living in a cemetery toilet block in Clitheroe after he lost his business before an invite to a CAP coffee morning helped him turn a corner.
Christians Against Poverty (CAP), a charity with debt centres across the UK, helped him connect with a local foodbank, and find friends and a home. Parkinson is now planning to walk 240 miles in 18 days, from Clitheroe Castle to Westminster Abbey to raise funds for the charity and to highlight its work. He set off on 11th June, and his walk will take him via a number of other CAP debt centres, where he will be joined by staff and volunteers.
Parkinson said:
“In my lowest moment, I was sitting on a bench just before Christmas, thinking about how I’d been trying so hard to get work and was failing all the time. I felt so miserable, so let down, and I couldn’t see a way out. I feel this is a chance to make people aware of what it’s like to be homeless. So many people still don’t know what CAP is and does so I want to highlight the life-transforming work they do.”
Parkinson is hoping to raise £10,000 for the charity through his JustGiving page.
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.