We decided to create a Parish Team which would share the steps and were lucky to have recruited eleven individuals and one family group (including the dog!), and on Ash Wednesday we began our journey.

Over the weeks we have walked and jogged in a variety of places, although Tiverton’s beautiful canal has been a popular spot. Some of the group are regular walkers, whilst others joined in order to contribute as many steps as possible. The Parish’s contribution has been to donate incredibly generously both via our Just Giving page and through the “Sumup” machine in both churches.

So, how did we do??? Well, we smashed our donations target! At the time of writing our kind parishioners, friends and families have donated an incredible

£1,600!

CAFOD has emailed to say that we are in the top 10% of contributors, which is AMAZING.

As for steps, between us we managed to walk

4,730,933 steps, or approx. 2,366 miles

that’s equivalent to walking from Tiverton to Rome and nearly all the way back!

Our team were: Margaret Found, Fr Paul Rea, Siobhan Warne, Shelagh Eastwood, Liz West, Graham Parton, Simon and Marian Coombs, Sally Chapman, Eduarda Santos, Jane Trott and Teresa Cummings’ family plus dog!

I asked members of the team to say a few words about the challenge and their experiences over the last weeks.

Sally said: “I really enjoyed my daily walking Lenten ritual and met lots of people along the way! I was lucky enough to spend some time in Ethiopia and know how scarce water supplies are, so it has been a real privilege to walk alongside my brothers and sisters in Ethiopia to raise awareness and finance to help them.”

Liz commented: “When I first read about CAFOD’s Lenten Walking for Water challenge I felt sad, knowing that I would not be able to do 10,000 steps a day. So I was really happy when Jane organised a Parish team as I knew I could only promise a smaller number of steps. And as for sponsorship. I was able to ask my many-times sponsored children and grandchildren to donate and was grateful that they did!

I was also surprised by a large unasked-for donation from my sister.

Since we generally have more water than we need here in Devon, I hope that our team efforts will help to supply the Water of Life to those who clearly have a great need for this”.

Eduarda told us: “I’m actually a scientist and most of my research focus is water pollution, so this has been doubly as meaningful for me!”

Fr Paul put it simply: “It’s been a great challenge!”

 Together, both walkers and donors, we have raised sufficient to buy, for example:

• Water pumps for two villages
• A safe water supply for about ten schools

THANK YOU!