Jersey walks record breaking 44,374 miles for Collas Crill Island Walk

A record-breaking 1621 people took on the Collas Crill Island Walk this year to celebrate the charity event's 25th anniversary - 386 more than the previous year.

The annual round-the-island walk, organised by Rotary Club De La Manche and Collas Crill, raised money for Parkinson's Jersey, the National Trust for Jersey and Centre Point. Over the last 24 years the event has raised £1.9 million for Jersey charities and organisers are hoping to round this figure up to £2 million with the money raised in 2015.

First over the finish line was Dom Maher who completed the full 48.1 miles in just seven and a half hours, closely followed by Marc Nicole and Bryce Alford. The last walkers to cross the line reached the waterfront at around 11:30pm.

Collectively, Saturday's walkers clocked up an impressive 44,374 miles - the equivalent of walking nearly twice around the world!

The Lieutenant Governor's Challenge, which splits the main walk into quarters so that it can be completed over four years, proved popular again this year with 279 entries.

Organisers believe that the increase in sign-ups is due to the addition of the relay walk, which allowed teams of four to walk around 13 miles each and received nearly 300 entries. Each team could be tracked via GPS thanks to Racenation, who also coordinated registrations and check-in points for the walk.

"The atmosphere on Saturday was incredible. What always strikes me about this event is the diverse range of ages and abilities of the people who partake, our oldest walkers this year were 74 years old and we also saw a number of children walk with their parents. People even travelled from Guernsey, Devon and Belgium to take part!

"This is a serious challenge - 48 miles is not easy. But we hope that by bringing everyone together to achieve something outstanding, they can also have a great day and make some friends along the way. With the options of the Lieutenant Governor's Challenge and now the relay, no-one needs to miss out.

"We would like to thank all the volunteers, sponsors and marshals who make the whole event possible and to congratulate everyone who took part on the day for enduring the miles to make the day such a resounding success," said Collas Crill Joint Senior Partner, Chris Bound.

Rotary Club De La Manche Treasurer, Jake Crichton, said: "So many people train for, and look forward to, this event all year round. It's become a landmark event in Jersey's community calendar and has come so far since founder Paul Owen began walking on his own as a personal challenge 25 years ago.

"While we don't have a certain number yet, figures are looking good for us to hit our target of £100,000, which would bring the total raised since the beginning of the walk 25 years ago to a fantastic £2,000,000."

The amount raised this year will be announced in September when all sponsorship money has been collected.

If you took part in the walk, please remember to collect and hand in your sponsorship money as soon as possible.