Chris arrives home

For one man, a broad sandy beach on the Gower peninsula in South Wales recently marked the end of a mammoth journey which began on the same spot back in 2017. Since then he has walked not just around the entire UK coastline but around every offshore island too, inhabited or otherwise. His reasons for doing this are spelt out on social media and in a book that he published at a midway point on his journey, Finding Hildasay. The amount of money he has raised for his chosen charity, SSAFA, is almost beyond belief.

For us, however, the story starts in 2018, by which time Chris had made his way to Scotland and was painstakingly following the many twists and turns of the Argyll coastline, documenting his progress through the Facebook pages that would track every inch of his six year mission. For this is what it had become for him, a life-changing challenge, the biggest undertaking he had ever taken on. And as he explains in his book, whilst walking along the coast through the village of Ardrishaig, carrying his usual massive rucksack, wearing his trademark kilt, his distinctive headwear, and with his dog Jet at his side, he met our son Michael who lived there at the time.

The bond forged between them on that day was something special and the rest is history, as they say, but it does explain why we chose to leave home and drive over 500 miles south so as to meet Chris on the beach in Rhossilli Bay to witness his final steps as he crossed his own starting point.

With him on the beach, along with Jet, were his fiancée Kate,  their son Magnus and most remarkably, several hundred followers who had travelled from far and wide to meet and welcome them home.

Just like all the others we were able to walk the last mile across the sand with him and marvel at this remarkable man's achievement. The money he has raised for the ex-servicemen's charity is simply staggering yet Chris's modesty at what he has achieved is equally hard to believe.

Our son Michael may no longer be with us but Chris's memory of their brief time together has stayed with him and the massive emotional hug that I received from him when I introduced myself was so full of meaning that even now I am overwhelmed when I look back on that moment. We made the 1,100 mile round trip just so we could be there to meet him and it was worth every inch.