Charity walk from Rugby to Coventry to tackle health inequalities
Rishard Beckett, who has Down's syndrome, successfully completed a walk from Rugby to Coventry to raise awareness on health inequalities
A Rugby man, who has Down’s syndrome, has completed a 16-mile canal route walk from Rugby to Coventry to raise awareness on health inequalities.
Rishard Beckett, walked alongside workers from Grapevine, a charity in Coventry and Warwickshire who work with people living in poverty, with learning disabilities, or facing isolation.
We spoke to Rishard at the finish line, after his 8 hour challenge: "The walk was hard and tiring but when I came to the finish line it was amazing to see everyone cheering me on.
"I'm an actor and on the walk we stopped at different points to do some performances which aimed to break down barriers young people, with learning difficulties, face in the healthcare system."
Richard was inspired to take on the challenge after the latest LeDeR report (Learning from lives and deaths of people with a learning disability and autistic people) finds that on average, people with a learning disability die 19.5 years younger than the general population and are almost twice as likely to die from an avoidable cause of death.
We spoke with Rishard's mum, Mel, who says these figures are staggering: "To think that Rishard wouldn't have his effect on the world for an extra 19 years is really upsetting.
"You find it difficult to comprehend."
Mel continued: "I'm super proud of what Rishard has achieved in raising awareness.
"He's been training in the gym and I knew he had it in him - I'm super happy."