Saddleworth Beer Walk - Saturday 29^th May 2010

On Saturday 29^th May 2010, Judi, Fozia, Bob & Theo braved the elements to do the Saddleworth Beer Walk to raise money for their beloved local Tameside Oldham & Glossop Mind offices. 

For those of you who are not familiar with the Saddleworth Beerwalk, it is now one of the biggest events on the Saddleworth calendar. Some fifteen hundred people in fancy dress walk the traditional eleven mile route through five villages and back, being rewarded with a beer at ten beer stations along the way while collecting money for various charities. It started 37 years ago with six Round Tablers doing a charitable pub crawl and has grown to such an annual event which now raises something in the region of £80,000 for various worthy causes.

The day of the Beerwalk arrived and it was a cold and wet day – typical Oldham weather really! However we were well prepared for the inclement weather with Bob & Theo wearing black tights – both on their legs & arms (!) along with a black top & black balaclava – Theo even had a black bin bag over his head to complete the picture. Judi wore a white painter’s suit complete with hood. Our fancy dress theme was “1 in 4”; 1 in 4 people will have a mental health problem within the course of their life. Three people were to be dressed in black and the “one” dressed in white. Unfortunately our 4^th member, Fozia, was unable to make it at the 11^th hour.

Not to be fazed, we soldiered on, battling the elements – think the alcoholic beverage at each pub helped with that!  Judi wore a white veil with some stats on the back letting people know how prevalent mental health issues are. For example, British men are three times as likely as British women to die by suicide; mental health problems are found in people of all ages, regions, countries and societies. Unfortunately due to the rainy weather and mass of crowds the veil did not last very long and found its way very dishevelled into a bin around the 5^th or 6^th pub. Our banner didn’t even last that long, although it came in very useful for poking people out of the way on our way to the bar!

We managed to collect £20 in loose change on our way round and altogether have raised just under £200, which I’m sure you will agree is not bad for a day’s work! We hope to make this an annual event and do the Saddleworth Beerwalk again next year to raise money for Tameside Oldham & Glossop Mind. We would like to get more people involved in the walk next year and would like to come up with a more inventive fancy dress so “Watch This Space” and hope you enjoy the photos from this year’s event!