🎉🎈40,000 Barefoot Steps for My 40th Birthday! 🎈🎉

To mark turning 40, I’m walking 40,000 steps barefoot, that’s roughly 17 miles, and a full loop of Rutland Water should do the job!

Why barefoot? Because every year, over 200,000 people are newly diagnosed with leprosy. A disease that not only causes stigma, but often results in the permanent loss of sensation in hands and feet.

Even after being cured, that loss of feeling never returns.

Many people affected by leprosy live in extreme poverty and don’t have shoes. No feeling + no shoes = injuries that go unnoticed.

In February, while in India, I met a man with a severe ulcer on his foot. He had no idea it was even there so why had he come into the hospital? His wife noticed a strong, unpleasant smell coming from the wound. Only then did he realise something was seriously wrong. The injury had gone completely unnoticed, silently spreading beneath skin he could no longer feel.

All for lack of a simple pair of shoes.

The good news? A pair of custom protective shoes designed specifically for feet affected by leprosy costs just £10.

That’s it. £10 to prevent pain, infection, and even amputations.

So I’m walking barefoot — to raise awareness, to raise funds, and to stand in solidarity. Can you help me reach my goal?

👉 Sponsor me here: It only takes a couple of minutes. Every £10 you give provides a life-changing pair of shoes for someone who needs them.

Want to join me? I’ll be walking on Saturday 21st June — message me if you’d like to come along (you’re absolutely allowed to wear shoes!).

And don’t worry too much about my feet, I’ll be in some wonderfully odd barefoot walking socks, which (I’ve learned the hard way) don’t do much on gravel. Gravel is my new nemesis.

Thank you so much for your support, generosity, and love 💛 Let’s get walking — and get giving.

Freya