Norfolk dads to walk coast to coast for hospital charity

Friends Martin Church and Matt Dyke aim to walk 190 miles in just five days to raise funds for the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital’s neo-natal intensive care unit.

Martin Church and Matt Dyle on training walk (Image: Supplied by Martin Church)

The pair, who met at school in North Walsham, have both had premature babies - both of Mr Church's children have been helped by the unit. 

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His second, Mabel, was 14 born weeks premature in December 2021 weighing just 820 grams or 1.8lb.

Mabel in her incubator (Image: Supplied by Martin Church)

Mr Dyke's daughter Rosa was five weeks premature in 2014.

The pair and three others have already completed an 83-mile Norfolk coastal walk in 2020 as a “thank you” to the baby unit.

Now their coast-to-coast route, devised by famous writer and walker Alfred Wainwright, will take them through the Lake District, over the Pennines and across the North York Moors before finishing at Robin Hood’s Bay.

Mabel in a ball pool (Image: Supplied by Martin Church)

Mr Church, 41, an Anglian Water field technician from Horsford, said the neo-natal unit offered "brilliant" support for his daughter.

He said: “Mabel was tiny. She could fit in my hand, and her nappies were the size of a tea bag.

"At 15 months she’s now making good progress and weighs 7.6kg.”

Martin Church and his family (Image: Supplied by Martin Church)

Starting on April 5 they aim to walk more than 15 hours a day and raise at least £5,750.

Matt, 37, from North Walsham and where he is a project manager for Wall Engineering, said: “The mileage and the hills, which seem never-ending on the training walks, will be a real challenge, but we want to help the ward’s future success stories similar to Mabel’s."

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The QR code to donate (Image: Supplied)

Donations towards their fundraising can be made via their JustGiving page and via collection boxes in North Walsham’s Mundesley Road and Happisburgh Road stores. Follow their progress via Up and Running Treatments’ Facebook and Instagram pages.