Northampton man spends his birthday walking continuously for more than 15 HOURS to clock up 100K steps for mental health charity

A Northampton man spent his 39th birthday walking continuously to clock up 100,000 steps in aid of a mental health charity.

Daniel Duggan, who has lived in the town all his life, was inspired to take on the hefty challenge after he completed a walk in the Lake District three years ago, which took him to 50,000 steps.

The care service company owner was confident he could reach the elusive 100,000 in a day if he put his mind to it and did not take any breaks.

So on Saturday (August 21) - his 39th birthday - he started walking around Pitsford Reservoir at 5am.

Dan said: “The last year or so has been intense and challenging working in the care industry and it has been hard to create time to do anything of this nature.

“But this year I really wanted to do it and I’ve always tried to be quite selfless so I wanted to do it for charity.

“I didn’t want anyone to know what I was doing so I set up a JustGiving page and shared it to my friends and family at 5am on Saturday when I started the walk.”

Dan walked until 8.30pm and stopped for no more than five minutes for quick toilet breaks.

As he took his 100,000th step, he had also clocked up 46 miles, completed nearly seven laps of the reservoir and burned more than 8,000 calories.

But it was not all plain sailing as Dan said he really started to struggle just over halfway through and he nearly ‘fell to the ground’ at 80,000 steps.

He added: “It was the hardest thing I have ever done.

“I got to around 60,000 to 70,000 steps and I didn’t think I could do it.

“But all the support I had on the fundraiser and from people who joined me on my walk pushed me to complete it.

“When I completed it I felt elation, disbelief, slight regret and agony like I’d never felt in my life. I am still in agony now.”

So far, Dan has raised more than £500 for mental health charity Mind.

“I don’t struggle with mental health the way I know a lot of people do, but recently I have been feeling down and I’ve wanted to get out and about doing stuff," Dan continued.

“Going to the gym and getting out for practice walks really helped my mental health.

“I wanted to do something different and I thought this challenge connected well with Mind.

“It’s great to be able to raise money for a worthwhile cause that supports a lot of people in dark times.”

Dan also grew his hair during lockdown and then shaved it off raising £2,000 for Cynthia Spencer.

To donate to his latest walking fundraiser, visit his JustGiving page here.