3 Dads Walking 2024 Day 25 - Taverham to Norwich

The last leg. A 7am start to ensure that we get past the route of the Sloughbottom ParkRun; even though it was an earlier than normal start we had over 30 people waiting to walk with us.

Our route into Norwich continued to follow Marriott’s Way, the old railway line, so our progress was swift. Lots more conversations about our walk, the people we’ve met and the impact our Walk of Hope 2024 was having. Many suicide-bereaved parents who had walked with us earlier on the walk re-joined us today.

We diverted from the old track bed to visit the newly opened Sweet Briar Marshes Nature Reserve; we’d been contacted Eliot Lyne, CEO Norfolk Wildlife Trust, who told us that this reserved had just been opened the day before our arrival in Norwich. Eliot joined us on the walk and gave us a warm welcome into the reserve and explained how the local community had played a part in the opening up of the wonderful, peaceful oasis of calm.

Eliot Lyne introduces us to the Sweet Briar Nature Reserve

Beyond the nature reserve we had to get a wriggle on to ensure we got past the ParkRun course. As our group strode on we spotted a man in red cloak, gold chain and feathered hat striding towards us, it was James Wright – Lord Mayor of Norwich! He didn’t stop as he was on his way to start the Sloughbottom ParkRun as it was its 5th birthday! He said he’d be back.

We were greeted by many ParkRun marshalls as they took up their posts and after a couple of media interviews on Anderson’s Meadow we made our way into the city centre where we met Charlotte, a producer from BBC Breakfast.

Charlotte held us in position just round the corner from our finish point until she was given the thumbs up – with that we and our crowd rounded the final corner of the walk to take us to the front of Norwich City Hall. We were greeted by a large cheering crowd, waving PAPYRUS flags. As we walked towards the finishing line Monty, Mike’s dog, rushed forward to say hello.

Monty says hello (to the wrong dad!)

Our finish was going out live on BBC Breakfast; Alison was there to interview us, Ged (CEO of PAPYRUS) also said some very kind words about the impact we were having on encouraging positive conversations around suicide prevention. After the live broadcast we descended into a media scrum. As well as talking to the assembled media we managed to find time to thank everybody who had come out to welcome us, we asked them all to pick up PAPYRUS wristbands before they went home and encouraged everyone to find out more about PAPYRUS then talk to others about suicide prevention.

After the crowd disappeared we were left with our families. Before beginning our journey home we had one more duty. The team at Jarrold’s (a beautiful family-owned department store in Norwich) had invited us to do a book signing. We took the opportunity to have a quiet few minutes before signing copies of our book – Three Dads Walking – 300 Miles of Hope. We’d done an awful lot, seen more countryside and met loads of people since the book was published in early April....enough experiences for another book!

After the book signing Tim and Andy went back to Shouldham but, due to family commitments, Mike headed home. That brought the end of our Walk of Hope 2024.

Let’s see what happens next....