At 10pm on the 2nd July, we took to the streets to walk 10 miles for Tenovus Cancer Care’s Goodnight Walk!
Thankfully, it was a warm night and quite dry (well it was when we first set off anyway!) so we headed to Frankie & Benny’s at about 7pm to have some food before jumping on the train to Cardiff City Stadium where we would begin the walk.
The place was absolutely buzzing. It was such a good atmosphere & there were so many different things going on even before the walk began; a selfie station, a choir, fancy make-up – it was fantastic!
And the costumes! Some of the walkers absolutely smashed it with their neon.
We went quite sophisticated, dahhling…
There was a ‘Walkers Wall’ where everyone could write messages so I wrote down who I was walking for – my dad who passed away 3 years ago & everyone still fighting!
By 10pm, we were ready to go! We set off with a bottle of water each, our phones, some sweeties and some glow in the dark handcuffs – we did the whole walk (apart from the last mile) handcuffed to each other!
We set off through the town which was a little crazy as it was a Saturday night – lots of drunk people cheered us as we walked past ha! – and talked non-stop for the first few miles about eeeeverything as best friends do! Oh, and we also managed to eat three packets of sweets within the first…ahem…two miles.
The volunteers all the way around were amazing & their encouragement was so welcome by the time we got to the halfway mark.
(If you know Cardiff, just for reference, we walked from Cardiff City Stadium all the way to Roath Park and back again.)
Roath Park was our halfway point and when we got there, we both felt the tiniest drop of rain on our heads at the same time. Trying to ignore it, we brushed it off and carried on. By this point, it was really dark and we could admire the lake – it looked really pretty as there were lights shining on it and you could just make out the silhouettes of the swans on the water.
Then, all of a sudden, the heavens OPENED!
We didn’t know whether to stop and take shelter for a bit or keep going but I knew that it would be better to battle on through it and get to that finish line a little bit sooner; if we stopped now, we might not start again.
We carried on and walked back through Cathays and on to the Cardiff University buildings where there was a Candlelight Vigil. It was really peaceful at this point on the route which was so lovely; after all the chattering & cars beeping and people shouting their support (which was great of course!), it was nice to be able to take a moment to reflect on why we were all doing the walk in the first place.
We finally crossed the finish line at 1.30am and Tenovus provided us with a free hot drink & breakfast roll which was what I had been looking forward to for sooooo long!
And if that wasn’t enough, we also popped into McDonald’s & got a Happy Meal too 😉
I was aching so much the next day but I’m so glad that we completed the 10 mile walk & I’m really happy that I got to do it with my best friend.
I have never enjoyed a bath as much as I enjoyed the bath I had when I got home 🙂
Thank you so, so much to everyone who has sponsored us, everyone who has supported us & Tenovus for having us! I’ll be sure to sign up again in the future 😀
Allie x
Sponsor us here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/alicegoodnightwalk
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Allie Morgan - Writer & Cancer Survivor 