Pilgrin Roger raises thousands for St Luke's Hospice and Help for Heros.     

FOR the past six years the Times has been reporting on the exploits of 70-year-old Dousland resident Roger Mechan as he walked the pilgrim trails of France, Spain and the UK, all to raise money for Help for Heroes and St Luke’s Hospice.

To date, Roger has covered 2,350 miles and, in addition to being sponsored, has stood in the street for many hours with a collecting tin, which has raised a total of £33,000 for his chosen charities.

When asked what first motivated him to begin this physical and financial journey, he said: ‘It started soon after I retired as a local police superintendent. My wife, who politely informed me that she had been running the house perfectly well for 45 years without my help, suggested I went for a walk. So I did. And four weeks later I came home again having walked 480 miles along a pilgrim route that meandered over the French Pyrenees and through the hot and dusty drovers’ lanes of Spain. 

‘I was later to discover what my wife was actually suggesting was that I walk down the road and get the newspaper!

‘Of all the miles I have walked since, that first adrenalin filled day, battling 30 degree temperatures as I hauled myself over the top of the Col to gaze down onto the ancient pilgrim abbey in Spain’s Roncesvalles, were the most memorable. For I was, unknown to me then, starting on a road that so far has never ended.’