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3,000 MILE CHARITY WALKER RETURNS TO ROYAL RACECOURSE TO CONTINUE NATIONWIDE CAMPAIGN

On Thursday (11th February), Ascot Racecourse will once again welcome the remarkable man who is walking 3,000 miles between all UK racecourses to raise vital funds for Pancreatic Cancer UK and Racing Welfare.

Richard Farquhar and his Walking The Courses campaign, which has grown to be racing’s biggest ever charity effort, partnered with both the Discover Ascot race day and QIPCO British Champions Day in 2015. Across the two days, Ascot’s racegoers contributed over £5,000 to Farquhar’s co-beneficiaries.

The father of four will return to Berkshire’s Royal racecourse on Thursday to complete the next stage of his journey, a 34 mile stomp to Newbury Racecourse in time for racing on Saturday. This will be the 52nd stage of his 58 leg journey.

 

Farquhar’s mission is to connect all sixty of Britain’s racecourses on foot, arriving at each course on a race day. He was inspired to undertake this fundraising challenge after losing his father in 2012 to pancreatic cancer, the most vicious of all 21 common cancers. With both father and son being lifelong racing fans, Farquhar decided he wanted to involve all of the nation’s racecourses in his charitable initiative. He is hoping that his marathon efforts will raise a huge £1.4million to be split equally between the two charities that are very close to his heart.

Farquhar is now around three-quarters of the way through his charity pilgrimage. He will already have covered over 2,400 miles and visited 52 of the country’s 60 racecourses by the time he leaves Ascot on Thursday. His fundraising total currently sits at around £320,000, including pledges; he still has a long way to go yet.

To find out more about ‘Walking The Courses’, to donate and to get involved, visit www.walkingthecourses.com.

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How Walking The Courses works: Each leg of Walking The Courses will end with Richard’s arrival at a racecourse on the day that there is a race meeting. Richard will complete each leg of the journey by walking a lap of the course itself, finishing at the winning post.  Each racecourse to racecourse walk is staggered over thirteen months, with the last walk taking place in April 2016.

Walking The Courses is raising funds for two charities: Pancreatic Cancer UK (www.pancreaticcancer.org.uk, charity number 1112708) and Racing Welfare (www.racingwelfare.co.uk, charity number 1084042). The fundraising target is £1.4million.

Richard settled on the £1.4m target upon hearing that in 2013, funding from the Department of Health into research into pancreatic cancer was just £700,000. Richard is determined that he will individually contribute at least the same amount to Pancreatic Cancer UK as the Department of Health did in 2013. Due to there being a second beneficiary, Racing Welfare, the total fundraising target is thus double this figure.

Pancreatic Cancer UK is the only national charity fighting pancreatic cancer on all fronts: support, information, campaigning and research. One person dies of pancreatic cancer every hour. Pancreatic cancer has the worst survival outcome of any of the 21 most common cancers, with a five-year survival rate of only about 4%. Survival rates have improved very little in over forty years. Richard lost his father, Peter, to the disease in 2012 and was inspired to embark on a fundraising challenge on the charity’s behalf when learning about the desperate lack of funding into the battle against the disease. Richard committed to the challenge upon hearing of the loss of John Hills in June 2014. Just five months later Dessie Hughes lost his life to the same illness.

Racing Welfare provides professional guidance and practical help to current and retired stud, stable and support staff, and their families, in times of need. Its work is vital to the welfare of the unseen army of dedicated staff whose work is fundamental for the wellbeing of horseracing. The charity’s team offers advice on topics ranging from accidents and injuries through to addiction and recovery support. Racing Welfare also owns and manages a portfolio of housing across the UK. To many, racing is a great day out. To an army of unsung heroes, however, it is also a lifetime of dedication and hard work. Racing Welfare supports these people.

Walking The Courses is being officially supported by many notable individuals within the horse racing industry. These include Clare Balding, Cornelius Lysaght (BBC), Charlie Hills, Oliver Sherwood, Lord Grimthorpe (Juddmonte Farms), Roger Weatherby (Weatherbys Ltd), Henry Beeby (DBS & Goffs), Nick Luck (Channel 4), Jonjo O’Neill and Roger Waley-Cohen, to name but a few.

Walking The Courses is currently sponsored by Liontrust Asset Management Plc, Weatherbys Ltd and Subaru UK, the latter of which is providing a Subaru Outback (2015 series) as the support vehicle for the duration of the campaign. Walking The Courses is extremely grateful to these three companies for their sponsorship.