“All I want to do now is help as much as I can. I feel it is the right thing to do while I can.”
Collin Wimble, Fun Walker
2
Collin Wimble and his brother Chris were so close that he felt like he was losing his mind when Chris died from throat cancer five years ago. So moved was he by his loss and the quality of care and support he and the whole family received from St Christopher’s and St Wilfrid’s Hospice in Chichester, he started fundraising – and has not stopped.
Now, Collin is all set to embark on his fifth walk for St Christopher’s, the Fun Walk, which he says is the absolute best of all the many charities walks he has completed since 2020.
“The Fun Walk is the best organised walk I have ever done, and I have done a lot of walks. There is just something about it. The atmosphere is brilliant, and everyone is always so happy. In fact, all the other people who walk with me say it is the best one too.”
The urge to start walking – Collin’s chosen means of fundraising – came when he was recovering from his own serious illness just weeks before Chris died.
“I had a triple heart valve replacement, and I was determined to be fit enough to carry Chris into the church for his funeral. That is why I took up walking. Then I saw about the Fun Walk on St Christopher’s Facebook page and thought, I have to do this for Chris.
“Chris and I were so close. We ran a boys’ football team together for years at Croydon FC, followed Crystal Palace Boys, played darts and snooker, and would get up early at weekends to run car boot sales as well. When he died, I felt like I was losing my mind.”
“Living and working in New Addington all his life, Collin has always been aware of St Christopher’s and as well as the first-hand experience of its care with his brother, he also saw the support the hospice provided his father-in-law Steve and has a friend who’s currently receiving care from the hospice
“You can’t ask for better care. The staff really are just like angels. I do not know how they do their job because they are absolutely amazing.”
For the first Fun Walk, Collin trained every night after work and recruited twenty close family members to join him.
Over the decade or so he has worked in a pharmacy in New Addington, Collin has met dozens of people who have been cared for themselves by St Christopher’s or who have had family members that have been.
That partly explains Collin’s fundraising success. He has not kept a precise count but is confident he and his team of walkers have raised more than £10,000 in total for St Christopher’s – as well as many thousands more for the other charities he’s walked for, including British Heart Foundation. His charitable achievements were recognised recently when he was nominated for a Croydon Community Champion Award and was named runner-up.
With a month to go until the 2025 Fun Walk, Collin has already banked more than £2,000. A sponsorship form he keeps on the counter at the pharmacy has proved to be a very lucrative tool.
“People are very generous. They support me for every walk I do. I love doing them. When you cross the line, apart from it being quite emotional because of what it is and the reason behind it, it is also such a good feeling that you have helped people in some way, and I know Chris would have done the same.
“It is hard work raising money, but I do not believe in being shy about asking for it. Money does not come, and you find you have to spend time trying to find it.”
As he prepares for the Fun Walk 2025 with his hardcore of eight co-walkers, including his wife Catherine, friends Sandra and Emma and the new members of the team Joan, Carole and Louisa, Collin is keen to express his gratitude to the hospice.
“On behalf of everyone I know who has been cared for I just want to say how much we all appreciate the hospice for the help they have received. When I walked into the hospice after my first Fun Walk and saw young two patients sitting there, I just knew I had to do this every year from then on. All I want to do now is help as much as I can. I feel it is the right thing to do while I can.”
Would you like to join us for Fun Walk on 10 May?
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