Six intrepid planners and a non-planner friend are preparing for a gruelling hike of nearly 80km along the north Norfolk coast to raise sponsorship funds for the Help for Heroes charity, which provides support for injured members of the armed forces.

Their mission of mercy began after young soldier Nick Beighton — a captain serving with the Royal Engineers and posted to Afghanistan in September 2009 — was seriously injured by a bomb while on foot patrol in the Helmand province. Just six days after his 28th birthday and less than a month after arriving there he lost both legs and shattered his pelvis in the blast.

He was flown home to spend ten days in the critical care unit at Selly Oak Hospital, in Birmingham.

After two more months in hospital, he was moved to the armed forces rehabilitation centre at Headley Court in Surrey where he began the difficult task of learning to become mobile again.
While at Selly Oak, and later at Headley Court, Help for Heroes gave him a lot of help. The charity offers incredible support to wounded members of the armed forces, including raising significant sums to invest in the centre’s facilities.

This has inspired the seven of us to gear up for a gruelling sponsored walk along the Norfolk Coast Path over the weekend of 20-21 February to raise money for the Help for Heroes charity. The walk is equivalent to almost two marathons.

The choice of charity was never difficult. The work that our armed forces do is unparalleled in any other profession. That it is carried out with such enthusiasm and endeavour makes it all the more astonishing and often very difficult to comprehend for those of us with more routine jobs in the world of planning.

What has always been clear to all of us, however, is a solid determination to recognise this effort in whatever way possible and at the same time to support the excellent work of Help for Heroes.

We set out with the intention of raising £1,000. But the response and support so far has been overwhelming, including generous donations from strangers, and we hit that target with pledges within a week. Our target now is to simply raise as much as we possibly can for this very worthy cause, which for obvious reasons is close to our hearts.

Our journey will start at Hunstanton and pass through Wells-next-the-Sea, Sheringham and the Norfolk Coast area of outstanding natural beauty, breaking the journey midway at Stiffkey. We will finish at the end of the pier in Cromer more than 75km from our start point, where we will look forward to enjoying a well deserved drink and a chance to rest our weary feet.

We met at an East of England RTPI sponsored Young Planners networking night out in Bedford in 2001 and the other party members at Rochford District Council in Essex, where we began our careers.

We all became good friends and have remained in close contact, although our careers have taken us along various paths through different sectors and councils.
As well as ourselves, the party comprises husband and wife team Chris and Deborah Board. They met at Rochford. Chris is now director of DC Planning at Colchester and Deborah is principal planner at Babergh District Council. Former Rochford colleagues Hannah Baker, now an associate at Indigo Planning, and London Borough of Havering planning control manager Helen Oakerbee are also part of the group.

Meanwhile, a special Hike for Heroes group has been set up on the social networking website Facebook to allow people to follow our endeavours and leave messages of support.

Dave Beighton is a principal planner at Forest Heath District Council. Liz Beighton is a principal planner at Suffolk Coastal District Council and forms part of the Felixstowe Futures team. Anyone wishing to sponsor the walk should visit www.justgiving.com/Hike-for-Heroes.

Photo, left, shows Dave, Nick and Liz.

Author:

Nancy Hammonds

Publisher:

The Royal Town Planning Institute

Date:

06-Jan-10

Categories:

Networks & Associations 

Sections:

News & Media

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