Ben Donnelly hopes to lead a QPR tag team for this year’s charity walk in aid of the Bobby Moore Fund on Sunday 17th February, 2013. He expects to set off from Loftus Road at around 5am which would mean that he should arrive at Upton Park sometime around 10am. The following details were included in Ben’s recent email:
“It’s all co-ordinated by Jonjo Heuerman, who lost his grandmother to the same illness (bowel cancer) that took his West Ham hero Bobby Moore. Since then he’s been pulling out all the stops to raise as much money for cancer research, via the Bobby Moore fund, as he can, and so far he’s managed to raise roughly ¬£100k and has received a fair amount of recognition for it.
“Last year, as you know, the walk was a 25 mile route from Wembley to Upton Park, spread across three days and went via QPR (well down Wood Lane to the Westfield anyway), across Hyde Park, Soho, Westminster, the South Bank, Tower Bridge, Canary Wharf and Stratford before heading on to Upton Park.
“This year Jonjo (easy to forget he’s still only 11 years old and started doing this when he was 9) is planning a much bigger endeavour, involving the 92 English league clubs. He’s got six different tag team routes going from club to club, taking signed captain’s armbands, with each armband being collected on the way and each route ending up at West Ham. Jonjo and his group of West Ham fans will then go on a 66 mile route over 6 days ending up at Wembley.
“For my part, I hope to lead a QPR tag team, which is on the last leg of one of the routes, so I’ll be handed armbands by my Brentford counterpart outside Loftus Road and then begin a 13 mile walk to West Ham. I’m prepared to do it all on my own if necessary, but ideally there’ll be a few of us representing QPR’s support of a very noble endeavour for a very worthy cause.
“It’d be nice if we could have a number together to rival the average Fulham away crowd. Just as with last year, and as with pretty much everything else I do these days I’ll be doing the walk barefoot again. Last year, I managed a total of just over ¬£300 so my target for this year is to raise at least ¬£400.
“So it’d be really helpful if you could spread the word towards the two aims I have for this, which are:
1. Encourage other QPR fans to join me on the walk, or even for part of it
2.See how much in donations we can raise.
“I would hope that as a matter of fan pride, we would not want to be outdone by other clubs. All this information (as well as an easy way to donate) can be found via the link.
http://www.justgiving.com/saxbend2013
“Donations can be made via the above link and if you’re interested in joining Ben on the walk please get in touch. Good luck to Ben and all the others involved in the various stages of the walk later this month.”
Steve Russell
(The above pics are from last year’s charity walk)