Stephen Johnson, managing director of Quooker UK, has entered the home stretch in his fundraising mission, in which he is attempting to complete 35 marathons in just 31 days to raise money for Grief Encounter.
For each day in August, Johnson has pledged to walk at least 46.3km, in an homage to the estimated 46,300 children in the UK who face parental loss each year. Johnson will have to walk an average of 70,000 steps each day this month to reach his goal.
All of the funds raised will go to Grief Encounter, a UK-based charity that aims to support bereaved children. First established in 2004, the charity provides free, professional and specialist bereavement support to young people who have lost loved ones.
Johnson says that he has a personal stake in the charity, as he lost his own mother, Sandra Johnson, at a young age.
At the time of writing, Johnson has managed to raise £31,628 towards his target of £50,000. He is over 60% of the way towards his goal, with 10 days left before the end of August.
Johnson looks set to be on track to complete his ambitious challenge. As of last Friday, August 16, he surpassed the 1,000,000 steps milestone on schedule. For each 500,000 steps that Johnson walks, Quooker has committed to give away one of its hot tap products to one of Johnson’s charity supporters
Earlier today, the Quooker MD confirmed that he’d walked a total 1,286,487 steps – far exceeding the 1,225,806 steps he planned to reach by this point in his challenge.
On Johnson’s Just Giving page, he appealed for donations from anyone who could help. He said: “Whilst I have invested a full year of training, I am very aware how hard this challenge will be. Any support you can give, no matter how small, will spur me on every step of the way to raise money for this incredible charity.”
To support Stephen Johnson’s fundraising challenge, click here.
