Walk to raise funds for Daft as a Brush

A North East charity is about to embark on what is possibly its biggest project yet.
Brian BurnieBrian Burnie
Brian Burnie

Daft as a Brush Cancer Patient Care, founded by former Doxford Hall owner Brian Burnie, is taking on a 7,000 mile walk around the coastal path of Great Britain and Ireland.

Aimed at promoting the concept of free cancer patient transport. Brian and a group of walkers, many of whom have close associations with cancer, will be leaving the Millennium Bridge (Baltic Quay) at 10am on Monday accompanied by hundreds of local schoolchildren and a specially converted double decker bus they’ve named ‘Bluebell Bus’.

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The aim is to walk the coastal paths of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales in just over two years – that’s approximately 7,000 miles (or 8,000,000 steps in the first year!).

Regional cancer centres in all four countries will be visited en-route as well as the separate National Parliaments, returning June 2020.

Dignitaries attending the send-off include the Lord Lieutenant for Tyne and Wear, Sue Winfield, the Mayor of Gateshead, the Lord Mayor of Newcastle and Mayors of Sunderland, Durham, North Tyneside South Tyneside and Northumberland.

HMS Calliope Royal Naval Reserves will be towing Bluebell Bus the first few yards to start her journey after The Rt Rev Christine Hardman, Bishop of Newcastle and Rev Juliet Stephenson have blessed it.