28/06/2026
Well here it goes - Yesterday, 40 of our belle vue members, family and friends set off on a 20 mile walk from Sunderland train station back to the belle vue social club and to everyone’s surprise, all 40 of us crossed the finish line after completing the full thing, not 1 person dropped out!
We decided to raise money for 2 charities which are very close to our hearts.
-Teenage cancer trust - in November last year our glass collector Jonny was found to have a brain tumor and had to undertake a life changing surgery in order to recover.
-Stroke UK - in February this year one of our members and closest friends Paul suffered a stroke and had to learn how to do everything for himself from scratch.
Both Jonny and Paul are in recovery and have both came a VERY long way the last few months and as a club and a family we couldn’t be prouder of them both. They both joined us on the last stretch back to the belle vue club and lead the group across the finish line, such an emotional moment for everyone🥲
Now let’s move on to what made the day possible :
We would like to say a massive thank you to Cjs Scaffolding ltd and sk safety systems for buying all of our tops 🦺
Secondly we would like to thank 23 Taxis for there services who sorted us out last minute due to train cancellation and to all the staff who had a whip round when they found out what we were all doing ❤️🚕
Thirdly we would like to thank Sambuca's Hartlepool Restaurante for supplying all of our food after the walk at a discounted price 🍕
Also a Massive shout out to the support driver Micheal Arnell who kept the spirits up and kept everyone fed and watered all day with his co-pilot craig flounders. At times it was like watching a episode of max and paddy with the pair of them 😅😅
And finally the man that made the day possible Martin Pearson (ruffle) the day was planned to absolute perfect without this man the day would of not went ahead, he even done the 20 mile a week prior of us doing it to make sure the route was correct 😅so once again thank you from us all 🕺🏼🍻
It was a tough day, especially with the heat but everyone just got on with it and remembered the cause!! There was endless laughs, tantrums, aches and pains but most of all just a real sense of togetherness to get everyone through.
We have managed to raise a massive five figure sum for the 2 charities and we would like to thank anyone who donated money to our walkers, contributed to our buckets along the way or donated raffle prizes! We are in the process of collecting all donations in and having a final count up to reveal the final amount.
We went on to have an amazing night with DJ Sean (Craig David) Hackworth making sure everyone was entertained.
We had food, a raffle (which felt longer than the walk! 🤣) and watched England win🏴
From then it turned into a huge party, surprisingly everyone was still on their feet dancing, even after 50,000 steps🕺🏽🥳
You know it’s a goodnight when even the chairman of the club is on the karaoke 🫣🤣
Videos will be in comments due to Facebook new update🕺🏼👍
