I sold a successful business in 2010 to focus on my passion for the outdoors.
After formalising years of climbing and mountaineering experience I gained some qualifications (me and education haven’t always been friends) and became a freelance Outdoor Instructor working in the UK, Europe, the USA and Africa.
And then the world changed – Brexit, Covid…

Time in nature, especially time spent with other people in nature, has always been my personal way of dealing with the bad days – a way of reconnecting with what matters.
When everything went pear-shaped for everyone in the pandemic lockdowns I knew how lucky I was to be able to walk out of our gate onto a public right of way in a national park and just walk for hours in the peace and grace of the world.
So after reading all the rules I offered to take people out for 1:1 walks – a safe, supported chance to get into nature, de-stress, talk with someone who happens to be a really good listener. I put a post onto social media – and woke up to hundreds of messages from people desperate to find a way to feel less isolated, scared or worried.
Eventually, when the lockdowns were over I was contacted by a local mental health partnership to see if I could deliver supported walks in deprived and isolated areas of Cumbria to support people with low mental and physical health.

I didn’t know it at the time – but that was the genesis of Wellness Walks.

So what happened next?

Initially we formed a not-for-profit social enterprise – and we funded Wellness Walks by winning small grants and with the surplus (profits) from delivering commercial training courses. It was 95% me with some support from the fabulous Beth and a lot of encouragement from my wonderful wife and Dave who is now the Chair of our Board of Trustees.

So how did Wellness Walks develop from just you in Cumbria to dozens of volunteers all across the country???

By 2023 it was obvious that there was a huge demand for Wellness Walks – it was equally obvious that one person (me) could only ever do so much. I used some inherited money that had never sat comfortably with me to fund an idea – we tweaked it, refined it, learnt as we went – and eventually it became our Wellness Walks Volunteer Training Scheme. I knew from the start that I wanted our volunteers to be provably competent – so for me that means experienced and qualified, so that’s what we built the scheme to do. We knew Walk Leadership wasn’t enough on its own – so we added in First Aid for Mental Health, Safeguarding & Outdoor First Aid, I wanted them to be as well equipped to support people as possible.

And then a hopeful post on social media (again) asking for volunteers…

In July 2023 those very first volunteers passed their final assessments. It’s now the end of 2024 and we’ve nearly 70 people at some point in their journey of being or becoming a Wellness Walks Leader. We’ve been lucky enough to be asked to bring Wellness Walks to North Wales, the Scottish Highlands and lots of places in between. We’ve been supported by County Councils, other social enterprises and even some really kind donations, its been amazing.

And now you’re officially a charity – how did that happen?

It was a lot of hard work! Seriously you wouldn’t believe the amount of paperwork and red tape involved.

Once we started to see the tangible benefits of empowering our volunteers to support their own communities – by creating what we like to think of as a community asset, locally invested, skilled good people – it soon became obvious that our occasional charitable endeavour had in fact become our primary purpose.
As a charity we’re hoping it will help us grow – its certainly not a bed of roses – the funding landscape is awful at present – but when we do get to speak to people they immediately see the benefit of how we do things, why provable competence matters, why so many of our volunteers end up delivering so much more than we, or they, originally thought, how we’re able to foster positive behavioural change.