For Richard Pendrill, 2017 marks a very important year – the year he turns 80 years old. To mark the occasion he wanted to raise a substantial sum for a charity.

It was the daily walks with his two flatcoated retrievers that inspired him to do a sponsored walk, but this wasn’t any old sponsored walk – he chose to walk all the way from Amberley to Guildford!

As a regular donor to Canine Partners already, Richard decided to raise the funds for us to train more amazing dogs to transform the lives of disabled people. He said:

“I have been a number of times to their demonstrations and also been to talks to Gundog Clubs. A great charity that appeals to me because I love dogs and they help disabled people in a wonderful way.”

Although his birthday is in December of this year, he wanted to take on the challenge in September in order to reduce the chance of bad weather. He was joined by his daughter Susan and son-in-law Nick who both live in Wales.

“The weather was fine, and after telling Nick that the walk would be very flat, we then started to walk uphill towards the South Downs! Luckily for me this part of the walk was not as long, as I could not keep up with Susan who strode off up the hill!”

After a hilly start, the walk continued down into Amberley and the flat part of the walk began. The group covered wet grounds through the Wild Brooks, then drier and firmer footpaths through Pulborough and Billingshurst. By 6:30pm, they had arrived in Loxwood having covered 20 miles.

“It was a lovely walk and although I did apparently slow down near the end – actually Susan and Nick had just sped up! – The day was enjoyable and I didn’t feel too bad!”

Dedicated chauffeur Patricia met the trio and whisked them off for an evening meal at The Limeburners, before driving home to sleep.

The next day, Richard, Susan and Nick were driven back to Loxwood to start day two and the final leg of their walk.

“We left the Canal Centre at 10am and walked the first 5 miles to The Three Compasses pub where we met with a previous business partner from years ago, Derek. It’s an amazing thing that Derek and I did not disappear into the pub!”

The second day of the walk was on more roads and harder surfaces than day one, so by the time they reached Bramley, the group required a comfort stop. Walking into the village, they stopped at The Wheatsheaf and had a pint of shandy to tide them over!

“When the ladies in the pub asked us what we were doing, we explained about the walk and the charity and they gave us a donation of £20 – more than the drinks cost! This was very nice of them”.

After their brief stop, it was time to get moving and complete the last stretch. This was a further 16.5 miles to Guildford, where the group were met by a number of friends at the Britannia pub to celebrate their amazing achievement.

A huge congratulations to Richard, Susan and Nick for completing their sponsored walk and raising an incredible £6,500!

With this money, Richard has chosen to sponsor one of our puppies through the Gift of Independence scheme. Find out more about how you give the Gift of Independence.