walking to raise awareness and money for angelman syndrome
It’s official and now in the open. Le has resigned from her job so we can go travelling for several months! But our bigger news is that we are planning to also embark on the Camino Walk.
To some of our fellow blogger followers who have walked the Camino or are walking the Camino or planning to walk the Camino, you probably already know this news. But what we are revealing for the first time is that we are walking it for charity amongst a few other personal and spiritual (non-religious) reasons!
The walk starts in St Jean Pied de Port in the Pyrenees in France and will end 800 km “down the road” in Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Yes, you read it right, we are walking 800 km – it will be over 7 or so weeks.
The Way of St James has only recently been on our radar to do. It began in 2008, when we first heard someone was doing it. It sounded intriguing and sounded like it would be an astounding achievement. Then not long after, we heard of another person doing it and it just sounded too daunting. A few years on, David read “The Pilgrimage” by Paulo Coelho which sparked our interest and before you know it, everyone around us seems to have done it. So last year, we made a pact that we would do this pilgrimage before we turned 40 at it is also on the UNESCO Heritage List. You all know how much we love our UNESCO Heritage List 🙂
After a few highs and lows of the past year, it dawned on us – we needed to do it soon…. So we decided that we would do it in September!
Now to share with you about the charity we have chosen to walk for:
Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics (FAST) Australia
Why these guys?
David’s oldest brother has Angelman Syndrome. And we want to raise not only money for research but also raise awareness about the condition. It really is as simple as that!
So all we ask of our readers and followers is to read up about Angelman Syndrome at the FAST Website: http://www.cureangelman.org.au/ and then do ONE of the following (of course more if you like):
- Share what you have learnt with someone, have a conversation about it,
- Share something about Angelman Syndrome on your social media,
- Share our fundraising page (https://give.everydayhero.com/au/wise-monkeys-abroad) amongst your family and friends
- Support us on the 800 km walk by donating – proceeds go directly to FAST (except for transaction fees taken by the banks),
- Reblog this post or share on your various social media to spread the word of what we are doing, OR
- Encourage us through your comments on our blog, Twitter and/or Facebook as we prepare and face the 800 km.
Thank you in advance for you helping us spread the word and raising money for Angelman Syndrome!
More posts to follow about the Camino itself.
wise monkeys abroad 
October 30, 2014 at 4:31 pm
[…] their adventures. Virtually, not in a creepy stalking kind of way. They have recently walked 800 km all for a good cause. In addition to all this, I’m curious to seeing how they write as a […]
September 19, 2014 at 1:00 am
[…] Wise Monkeys Abroad are currently in Europe walking to raise awareness about Angelman Syndrome. If you haven’t heard of it, like I had not, take some time to […]
September 8, 2014 at 12:52 am
[…] And although it is our adventure, we are also doing it to raise awareness about Angelman Syndrome. […]
June 9, 2014 at 7:13 pm
[…] to stay motivated to remember that this is contributing to our “training” for the Camino (as a side note, would like to say that we have less than halfway to go on our fundraising target […]
June 1, 2014 at 10:54 pm
We did a fundraiser for Angelman Syndrome recently at my school. Quite an education! Enjoy the walk. Regards Peet
June 2, 2014 at 6:16 am
Really?? Wow – that is awesome!! 🙂
May 12, 2014 at 5:14 pm
Wow!!! 800 km!! Wow!! I am hearing about this for the first time…will read up…and yes, all the best! when does it start?
May 12, 2014 at 5:28 pm
We start in September so we have a bit of a ‘time’ in Europe in the lead up and then it’s full fledged! Yes – 800km is freaking us out a little bit so we appreciate all the encouragement and support 🙂
May 10, 2014 at 6:49 am
This is exciting news. A lady at work has done the Camino walk not once but twice! She loved it. We were just chatting yesterday about how much better prepared she was the second time. Her best advice was: don’t take too much clothing.
May 10, 2014 at 7:03 am
We have heard such wonderful things about it, we wanted to basically do it for ourselves but at the same time, do it for someone else too (if that makes sense) 🙂
Great advice, will keep that in mind when we are packing. Thanks 🙂
May 8, 2014 at 9:16 pm
Wow.. I wish you guys all the luck and have fun!
May 8, 2014 at 9:20 pm
Thank you so much! We could do with plenty of luck. As the days get closer, we get more nervous yet excited 🙂
May 8, 2014 at 8:27 pm
Outstanding!
May 8, 2014 at 8:30 pm
Thanks 🙂 Hope you can help spread the word for us!!
May 7, 2014 at 10:06 pm
Eight hundred kilometers of Walking?! Where do I sign up?! I am Insanely jealous of you two right now …;) I can’t wait to hear all about it! All the best guys 🙂
May 7, 2014 at 10:15 pm
😉 Sign up for walking? Donating? Or Following?
Thanks so much – we are very nervous about it but looking forward to it 🙂
May 7, 2014 at 1:48 pm
Wishing you all the very best for this great journey! Very inspiring!
May 7, 2014 at 2:46 pm
Thank you 🙂
Hope you will follow us on the journey and throw us encouragement from the sidelines!!!
May 7, 2014 at 12:08 pm
Fantastic you guys!! This is something we want to do one day too, but it’ll have to be before I turn 50, since 40 has unfortunately already been passed. 😉 Shared on my FB page. Can’t wait to read the updates! 😀
May 7, 2014 at 12:30 pm
Wow!! Thanks guys! Totally appreciate your support!!!
May 7, 2014 at 10:06 am
Wish you both can accomplish the long meaningful walk. Wish you both the best result. 🙂
May 7, 2014 at 10:54 am
Thank you so much for your lovely and encouraging comments! We hope we can achieve great things 🙂
May 8, 2014 at 12:12 pm
No worries. 😀
I do hope so.
May 7, 2014 at 1:26 am
A mighty challenge indeed and for a good cause too. Wish you guys all the best.
May 7, 2014 at 6:09 am
Thank you!!! Words such as these motivates and encourage us 🙂
May 7, 2014 at 1:23 am
Wow! That’s a long walk. I wish you all the best!! 🙂
May 7, 2014 at 6:08 am
Thank you so much! We appreciate the support 🙂