Charity cancer trek around Ireland and UK

MILLIONAIRE former hotelier Brian Burnie doesn’t just talk the talk, he also walks the walk, as he is about to prove on an epic scale, writes Tom Gillespie.

The Newcastle-based founder of Daft as a Brush Cancer Patient Care is to trek 7,000 miles around the coasts of Britain and Ireland to promote the charity and encourage its replication nationwide.

The charity, set up by Brian in 2010 after he left the business world, now operates 25 ambulances in the northeast of England, which, backed by 300 volunteers, provide free transport to hospital for cancer patients to receive chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments.

Starting on March 5 next, 73-year-old Brian will follow the coastal path around England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland visiting cancer hospitals and schools and staging promotional events along the journey, which he estimates will take two years.

Castlebar native Kevin McAleese is one of the many volunteers who will help out in the mammoth fundraising trek.

Stagecoach in the UK’s northeast has donated a double decker bus, called Bluebell, whose lower deck will be converted into an office, and the top deck will become sleeping accommodation.

Along the way it is hoped to raise £2 million for Daft as a Brush, £1 million for the Great North Children’s Hospital, and £1 million for research into Parkinson’s – a condition which Brian is now dealing with himself.

The cost of the day-to-day running of Bluebell and the journey will be financed by Brian so that all donations raised will go to the good causes.

On the walk, Brian will be accompanied on some stretches by cancer specialists and he will visit 300 schools, hospitals, all five parliaments and major landmarks.

On the west coast of Ireland leg, Brian and his team will visit Castlebar and Westport.

Supported by a back up team of four, Brian will set off next March from the Millennium Bridge on the Tyne and will head for the coast, then turn to walk to John O’Groats at the tip of Scotland.

He will include Holy Island and the Isle of Skye before walking south to Holyhead where he will take the ferry to Ireland.

After completing the circuit of Ireland back to Holyhead, it will be the ferry again and then on through Wales and England, ending up in back in Newcastle.

Kevin McAleese from Ballynew, Castlebar, became involved in the Daft as a Brush campaign through his involvement as a committee member of the Tyneside Irish Centre in Newcastle, where many fundraising events for the charity were held.

Kevin said: "The campaign will take two years. The logistics of getting it together with the police, accommodation and transport is massive. Hopefully the walking group will come to Castlebar and Westport en route along the west coast."

He added: "Gina Dunne, whose husband was a regular at the Tyneside Irish Centre, wanted to buy a bus for Daft as a Brush. She approached the committee to see if she could have a room in the club. We organised an event some weeks ago where I got my British Telecom (BT) past and present colleagues to come along and she raised a lot of money.

"In a year she had raised £11,000. She now wants to get the remainder of the £25,000 for the bus. She is a very determined woman. She is a woman on a mission."

Anyone interested, and for more information on the journey, email cheryl.finlay@daft asabrushbluebellbus.org.uk.