If someone had told us, when we organised our first Hit the Road walk back in 2011, that the walks would have continued every year until now, we would not have believed them. In our first walk, we hoped that 100 people would take part and we provided them with a basic pale blue t-shirt. Over the years, the numbers have grown and the quality and design of our t-shirts have improved. Even when we started planning this year’s walk, guessing that we would have more entries than the 659 from 2025, we never thought that we would have to close entries when the number got to 830!
So, this year was our fourteenth Hit the Road walk and many people travelled to the start at Crystal Palace to walk the full 20 miles. They were welcomed by our team of volunteers - Kim, Maria, Annette, Dylan and Kevin. Once again, the sun was shining while we gathered ready to hear Peter Luck start us off with his usual words of wisdom. Off we went following the Capital Ring for many miles through the parks of South East London. We then continued along the river Wandle to Wandsworth Park and then, crossing Putney Bridge, we reached Bishops Park, the mid-point of the walk.
It was good to meet up with our team of volunteers again who were ready with the Mars Bars and tins of water to refresh us before we continued with the second half of the walk. Many more people had made their way directly to the halfway point, preferring the shorter walk and, I must admit, that I was thinking this was a sensible choice!!
From the mid-point, we walked out of Bishops Park past Fulham Palace. As happens every year, I made a mental note to return there and have a proper look around it. I don’t suppose that I will!! We continued through central London. It was a sunny Saturday afternoon and, unsurprisingly many others had also decided to go out and take in the sights. This made parts of our route, including Kensington High Street and Leicester Square, very busy. Hyde Park, despite being busy, did not slow us down as it is so big. Eventually we made our way down to the River Thames which we were able to follow for a couple of miles with no hills. At Billingsgate, we left the river and walked up a short distance to the Brewdog Pub where I was happy to sit down for a few minutes before making my way down to get a drink and then picking up my certificate from Tony and Christine, who were doing a sterling job trying to find the certificates for the queues of people.
As usual, there was a wonderful atmosphere in the pub, and it gave everyone the opportunity to catch up with people they may not have seen since we Hit the Road in 2025.
These walks would not work without the volunteers who help on the day. We are also grateful to Carol Chester and Karen Ladly for helping to sort out the enormous number of t-shirts this year and to Donna and Nicola who helped to distribute them from the office. Sixth form t-shirts were given out by Freya. Thanks also go to Lizzy for designing the t-shirts and certificates. Any certificates that were not collected on the day are available for collection at The Campion School.
We thank Waitrose in Upminster for their donation of chocolate bars. Thanks also to the Campion Catering Manager for managing to persuade the companies that he deals with to donate water and other snacks. If anyone can help with similar donations for next year, we would love to hear from you.
We are grateful to our sponsor, Ahern, for making a contribution towards the cost of the t-shirts. If anyone would like to sponsor us next year, please let us know.
Fundraising: Please return any sponsorship forms and cash (or cheques made payable to ‘Teenage Cancer Trust’) to the school’s Finance Office by Friday, 22nd May. If anyone has set up their own online donation page, please email bkenlin@thecampionschool.org.uk with the link. This is simply to help us keep a tally of the total amount raised through this event. The final total raised will be published on the school website after the May half-term holiday. Donations are still coming into the JustGiving site and we have already raised over £11,000 on our Just Giving site www.justgiving.com/page/HitTheRoad2026
So, the end of another successful Hit the Road walk. We will let you know the final total for this year’s fundraising. Over the years, we have raised around £250,000 and, as a school, we are very proud of this.
We would love to add any photos that you took on the walk to the Campion school website. If you have any, please email them to Barbara to upload. Alternatively, if you upload them to the Hit the Road Facebook page, we can forward them. If you aren’t a member of this Facebook group yet, please search for ‘Hit the Road’ and ask to join.
We would love to see you all again next year and hope that the people who were not able to take part this year will do so next year on 1st May 2027. Make sure that you save the date.
Barbara Kenlin
On behalf of the Hit the Road Planning Committee