Mary attends the Friday morning Total Body WALX session:

“In 2022 I was treated for cancer and everything about the diagnosis and the treatment knocked me sideways: physically, psychologically and emotionally. A year or so after my treatment ended, I was struggling with fatigue and a huge loss of self-confidence. Seeking some additional support, I enrolled in a self-help course at Maggie’s Cancer Care called ‘Where Now?’. The course gave us access to a gym for a few weeks and our instructor suggested taking up a new form exercise which is how, eventually, I came to WALX in June 2024.

At the back of my mind I had the idea that when I retired I would do some long-distance walking. I’d long cherished the idea of walking one of the many Caminos to Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain. It was just a little piece of pie in the sky but there it was, a leftover from decades earlier when I had walked the last 200km of the Camino Frances with a group of friends, and something of the beauty and the freedom of the way stuck in my mind as something precious. This time, I wanted to do something a bit quieter, a road less travelled so to speak, and I set my heart on the route from Seville, known as the Via de la Plata, which follows ancient Roman roads and passes through beautiful former Roman and Arab settlements now the cities of Seville itself, Merida, Caceres, Salamanca and Zamora before the route joins the Caminos from France. The entire route is 1,000km which I knew I could not do but I also knew if I was going to do any of it, I was going to have to get a bit stronger, more confident, generally a bit more able. This is where WALX came in and where Martin’s Friday morning classes really helped me. I knew I could walk a reasonable number of kilometres but I didn’t have the skill, strength or stamina for an average of between 20 and 30km a day carrying a backpack.

The Friday morning Total Body WALX helped me to improve my balance, my strength and my agility. Martin’s encouragement and the camaraderie of the group cheered me up and improved my confidence. Learning to walk with poles proved invaluable especially when I felt a bit tired or had to tackle steep slopes or fast flowing streams, adding to my ability and confidence.

From 28 February to 22 March 2025 I walked from Seville to Salamanca. That’s over 500km and my calculator tells me that’s an average of 21.7km a day. That doesn’t include all the extra kilometres for sightseeing in little villages and larger towns and cities, shopping for food almost every day and finding local sources for some extra wet weather gear. While England and Wales have had the sunniest March on record and rainfall is about a quarter of the norm, Spain had four named storms in 12 days. It was bitterly cold, wet and windy. I wore all the layers I expected to peel off as I walked almost every day.

Although I didn’t reach Santiago, I got so much out of my trip. I set out not knowing if I could walk one stage or the journey alone with my backpack and that first stage was a lonely one but, by the end of it, I was already well on my way to a new found joy and self-confidence. I made a good few mistakes. I got blisters on both feet, but I did not fall once even though the roads were supremely muddy. I crossed streams (not on my own) where others turned back. When I felt tired, I straightened my back, I looked up and forward, I pulled in my tummy muscles and I lengthened my stride a little. It worked wonders. That’s all thanks to WALX and my Friday morning classes with Martin and a very supportive and non-judgemental group of WALX members.

At some stage, I’ll go back and finish my Camino or perhaps start another, this time with the intention and the knowledge that I can walk the whole way there. In the meantime, I’ll be keeping up my Friday morning WALX.”