Veteran To Do Walking Challenge On Yorkshire Coast For RNLI

A 89-year-old veteran will be doing a walking challenge on the Yorkshire Coast to raise money for charity.

Jeffrey Long MBE will be walking from Bridlington to Filey in a bid to raise funds for the RNLI.

He will start at Bridlington RNLI Lifeboat Station at 10am on Thursday 24 September and is due to be waved off by RNLI mascot Stormy Stan and the mayor of Bridlington. From there, the veteran paratrooper will walk nearly 20 miles along the coast to Filey.

Jeffrey will also call in at the lifeboat station on South Landing in Flamborough for some well-earned lunch and to meet some of the volunteer crew members there.

Jeffrey’s walk from Bridlington to Filey is the first of four that he is undertaking to help raise money for the RNLI, the charity that saves lives at sea.

He said:

"I'm going to walk as many miles as I can, to keep the boats afloat and the crews saving lives at sea."

Jeffrey is no stranger to challenging walks and has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for various charities since undertaking his first walking challenge at the age of 75.

This consisted of a hike from London to Lausanne in Switzerland, all the while carrying a 30kg pack.

The walk from Bridlington to Filey is one of a number of walks that the veteran paratrooper aims to complete in 2020, including one from Linton-on-Ouse to York on behalf of the RAF Benevolent Fund.

Fundraising Chair Bob Taylor of Bridlington RNLI explains how Jeffrey’s walk comes at a welcome time for the station:

"We’re hugely grateful to Jeffrey for choosing the RNLI as his charity on this walk and we can’t wait to welcome him to Bridlington. We’ve not been able to put on all of the fundraising events that we’d hoped for in the past few months so we hope that Jeffrey’s challenge will encourage people to donate so we can continue to provide our lifesaving work."

Anyone wishing to donate to Jeffrey’s walk between Bridlington and Filey can visit http://virginmoneygiving.com/JeffreyLongMBE2 and updates will be posted on various RNLI social media outlets on the day of the walk.