Shotton Walkers attend the Queen's Garden Party at Buckingham Palace

The Shotton Walkers Team & partners were invited to attend the Not Forgotten Association’s Queen's Garden Party at Buckingham Palace recently, in recognition of the fundraising contributions for the NFA.

The Walkers completed the Shotton to Shotton 171 mile walk in seven days back in September & raised over £15,000.00 for their Charities.

The garden party was hosted by The Princess Royal (the charity’s Patron) and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence in the grounds of Buckingham Palace. The event was attended by veterans from all military services whose ages ranged from people in their 20s to the over hundreds, as well as over 3,000 guests from military organisations, charities and care homes.

Quotes from The Shotton Walkers team members:

Newly elected Town Councillor & walk planner Dean Stenner commented:

We’re so proud to have had the opportunity to travel to London and represent Shotton in such a positive way at Buckingham Palace. The day will last in our memories forever.

To be recognised in such a way for our efforts was a massive compliment and reflects the importance of our contribution to the charity.

We would like to thank to our social media team, Caitlin, Jodie, & Rich in the USA who managed our website, to all the sponsors and donor’s and everybody who supported us during the planning and walk. We were invited to Buckingham Palace because of you all.

Pete Dodd:

It was such an honour to be invited along with so many of our veterans. The whole experience was quite surreal it didn't really sink in until the following day. It was great to share the experience with some amazing people.

James Guy:

It was an honour and privilege to be invited to such a prestigious event
The day was very humbling to be surrounded by army veterans who have fought for our country
A day that will never be forgotten

Lee Stinchcomb:

 I would just say it was an honour to be asked to attend the garden party and felt amazing to be recognised for the effort that we all put in last year during the walk and all the planning it entailed, it was a once in a lifetime experience and one that we will all remember forever and one we will all be telling our families about in the future, very very proud day.

Mike Hodson:

Couldn’t ask for a better bunch of friends who feel like family!!! Can honestly say I love you all, always be in my heart and memories will stay forever.

Becky Chesworth:

I wanted to camp out in the gardens, didn’t want to leave! We all enjoyed the day and the experience.

Kaye Stinchcomb:

It makes me so proud of what the lads did, that they received this amazing honour of being invited to Buckingham palace and we all got to share this experience together as a family.

Lorraine Windsor:

Memories made to last a lifetime with some of my favourite people. Extremely proud of "our" guys.

Sara Guy:

Just surreal
Best day of my life. Wonderful recognition for Shotton walkers amazing achievements in fundraising for NFA.

The Walkers planning team:

We’re already discussing our next community adventure, Please follow our Facebook page and website for news.

The Shotton Walkers & Partners who attended:

Mike Hodson & wife Nic Hodson

Pete Dodd & partner Heather Tyson (soon to be Dodd)

Ste Chesworth & wife Bec Chesworth

Gavin Evans & Partner Lorraine Windsor

Lee Stinchcomb & wife Kaye Stinchcomb

Dean Stenner & wife Karen Stenner

James Guy & wife Sara Guy

All from Shotton in Deeside

The Shotton Walkers’ charities

The Not Forgotten Association (NFA)

Delivering high quality and safe recreational and entertainment activities to meet the needs of their beneficiaries, providing a caring and personal service which is fully linked in with other recovery pathways and which is underpinned by an ethos where everyone counts and is valued.

0207 730 2400

CALM, campaign against living miserably.

The Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) is leading a movement against suicide.  

0800 58 58 58

About us

History

The walker’s group was essentially formed from a chat in a pub on a dark winters day in December of 2019 when Crawford Hall decided he was going to complete dry January for charity. As the day wore on and the cider flowed, he came up with the idea of not only doing dry January but also walking from the port of Holyhead, Anglesey all the way back to Hendy’s in Deeside. Crawford had gained four team members. Gav, Mike, Pete and Steve all volunteered to complete the walk with Crawford and thus “Crawford’s Crew” was formed. It was two weeks in to training that Dean and James joined the group to plan and organise the route and support network. Whilst the walkers were training, Dean and James set to work on the planning in the background.

2020 Sponsored walk Charity fund raiser in aid of Prostate Cancer and The Not Forgotten Association.

Our fundraising campaign of barely a month drew in over 600 active Facebook followers and masses of individual support which stretched as far as New Zealand & Australia, Local businesses supported the campaign including Morrisons store.

The challenge was completed on schedule raising over £8000

Shotton Walkers 2021-22

During the 2020 lockdown, the plans and ideas started to bounce around WhatsApp and it was agreed that the Shotton Walkers would regroup to start the planning for the 2021 challenge.

Reflecting on the success of the 2020 challenge we realised that if we managed to raise this amount of support with less than six weeks preparation, what we could do if we had months of preparation and planning?

The 2021 mission was agreed, walking from our namesake’s town in Durham back to Shotton on Deeside.
Both locations are known for their industrial past with Shotton Colliery being a historic coal mining town and our Shotton is still a famous site in British Steel history. It was agreed that this will be the challenge for 2021. , the walk took 6 nights & 7 days from the North East of England across the Yorkshire dales through to Liverpool and back into Shotton North Wales ending at The Clwyd in Shotton after being lead home by the Cambria Band covering approx. 170 miles. We raised over £15000.00.