A STALYBRIDGE man is walking tall as he pounds the pavements – and the towpaths – to raise money for a charity that helps feed children in Africa.
Rob White set himself a target of covering 150 miles over the month of June as volunteers for Mary’s Meals look to go 7,000.
That would cover the distance from Dalmally in Argyll and Bute, Scotland – the home of founder Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow – to Malawi, where it all started.
And the 76-year-old, a familiar face around the town, is not letting the ‘great’ British summer get in his way.
Rob said: “Everybody volunteers to do so many miles, it’s a collective 7,000. I said I’d do 150, so I’ve been trying to do at least five every day.
“I’d walk up to Carrbrook, down Grove Road, along the canal, I walk into Ashton – it just depends on where we are. We’ll be in Yorkshire and will do some there too.
“The weather’s not been great but I’m still doing it. It’s better to be ahead of your target.”
Rob, who is being assisted by wife Sheila, is no stranger to walking for Mary’s Meals – and he does not hang around once he sets off.
And one six years ago saw him get ahead of himself.
He recalled: “When I was 70, I walked from St Peter’s Primary in Stalybridge to St Peter’s Primary in Hazel Grove, where I worked.
“I was a volunteer reader in Stalybridge, so I knew all the kids.
“They came out and waved me off with flags of all the countries Mary’s Meals serves. I couldn’t believe how quickly I did it, it took me two-and-a-half hours.
“When I reached the train station there, I called the school’s secretary to tell her where I was and she said, ‘Can you slow down? The kids are on their lunch and they want to be here when you get here!’
“I had to hide in the bushes so they couldn’t see me. I had a call to say they’d finished their lunch and were waiting with a banner for me.”
Mary’s Meals began after Mr MacFarlane-Barrow visited Malawi in 2002 during a famine and met a mother, Emma, who was dying from AIDS.
When he asked fer eldest son, Edward, what his dreams were, he replied: “I want to have enough food to eat and to go to school every day.”
From beginning with food for 200 children in Malawi in 2003, the charity now serves 2,429,182 in 17 countries every day.
It sets up school feeding programmes, which are owned and run by community volunteers and its low-cost approach means it costs £19.15 to feed a child every day for a school year.
“It’s such a simple concept – you give kids something to eat and they’ll go to school,” Rob told The Correspondent as he spreads the cause’s message.
“The guy who started it still operates from his shed and wrote a book called The Shed That Fed a Million Children, then updated it to The Shed That Fed Two Million Children.
“When I go to schools, I say, ‘It’s up to you get them to rewrite it again for The Shed That Fed Three Million Children.’
“Last year I did 150 miles as it was the first time they’d done this and I’d like to keep doing it for as long as I’m able to. I enjoy walking anyway but it’s nice to have a reason to do it.
“The charity is trying to recruit more volunteers now. I did a radio broadcast for United Christian Broadcasting and I’m the poster boy for the new magazine.
“They’re doing a new Mary’s Meals magazine soon.”
YOU can sponsor Rob, who hopes to raise £500, by clicking https://www.justgiving.com/page/rob-white-1715678111212.