Charity challenges and mental health

It was 6:55am on Monday 1 July – day one of the 2019 Diabetes UK One Million Step Challenge.

With a few minutes left before the bus for the first half of my journey to work was due, I stepped into Haggerston Park and walked to the next stop via the avenue of young oaks that had been planted 18 months earlier.

The sun was already beaming down and my shadow stretched out ahead as I headed west.

Stepping off the bus in Islington, I continued my journey to the office on foot, along the Regent’s Canal, via Granary Square, King’s Cross and more.

Day two: I began my journey the same way. It was sunny again and there was longer before the bus was due, so I contemplated walking straight through the park, then on down a couple of streets and estates to catch it later on its route. Picturesque for part of the way, but not for the rest.

At the oaks, I stopped: why was I going to do it this way?

The first thing I knew of the step challenge was seeing a poster on a train as The Other Half and I headed to the RSPB’s reserve at Rye Mead in April.

Caledonian street art

But I only made the decision to sign up for it last Friday, registering the following day. Too late for my intro pack to arrive from the charity – though that doesn’t stop me getting underway. It runs from 1 July to 30 September, effectively meaning you need to take 10,869 steps a day for 92 days.

Inasmuch as I’ve planned anything about it, the aim is to go well over that daily total for the first couple of weeks at least.

My first instinct was to treat it as utilitarian: the easiest way to rack up steps is to walk at least half of my journey into work. That can take me along a canal towpath, so far from onerous – apart from the cyclists who treat it as their personal superhighway.

But then it struck me that, if I stop doing that – if I cease to see it merely as a matter of getting from A to B, a question simply of transit – what else can it hold?

As some who has struggled over the past couple of years with mental health issues (both parents dying; having to deal with cancer myself) I was realising that the challenge itself held value. But what beyond the health benefits of walking more each day?

On day two, I decided that, instead of zooming through the park and back onto the road, I’d make a circuit of part of the park, then exit and catch the bus right outside. It was blissfully quiet – apart from a trio of ring-necked parakeets who flew over, a beautiful flash of green against the blue. They’re migrating further and further into our neck of the woods; this was the first time I’d seen them below Acton Lock.

Pied wagtail, Francis Crick Institute

Leaving the bus in Islington, I continued on foot – ignoring the canal and trying some side streets for a change, giving me the opportunity to slip into Joseph Grimaldi Park for the first time.

Cross Caledonian Road and it’s busier as you head to King’s Cross, but after that you can slip through St Pancras station and then across to the Francis Crick Institute, thus avoiding Euston Road (always a plus).

By the institute – a not entirely-successful example of modern architecture in my view – a small bird was hopping around. New to the birding malarky, I didn’t recognise it, but took mental notes and a quick snap. Online research later revealed it to be a pied wagtail.

Treating this challenge as more than just adding a few daily steps could prove to be more enjoyable than I imagined.

Stay tuned – and, if you can, please donate via step.diabetes.org.uk/pages/amanda-73.

Thank you all, in advance.