Pals step up to support town that raised them
PAIR TO TREK 122 MILES FOR GOOD CAUSE
TWO childhood best friends have made it their mission to raise thousands for financially-struggling families on Teesside by battling The Snowdonian Way – a 122-mile trek across the Welsh mountains.
Leon Paul Marshall and Aaron Green, both 24, from Normanby in Middlesbrough, had previously completed the 100-mile walk from Glasgow to Fort William after their initial plans were cancelled due to the pandemic.
They wanted to challenge themselves even further with a 122-mile walk across the Welsh mountains when an idea struck the pair to change it to a sponsored walk to raise money for a deserving charity.
That charity ended up being The White Feather Project, which aims to ease the food deprivation crisis in Middlesbrough. Alongside that mission, the charity also supplies women’s sanitary products to those in need, aids disabled people in improving their standard of living and helps provide new parents with essential baby supplies such as cots and clothes.
Despite their previous gruelling walk, the friends were determined to find a way to give back to the town where they grew up. On their new mission, Leon said: “Through education, Aaron and I have been very lucky to be able to move away, experience different places and get decent jobs. But when you do that you have time to think about where you come from and just how different it is from other places in the country. For me, there have always been two sides to Middlesbrough, the side where people like to spend loads of money and have everyone think they are rich and the side where these really genuine people, even if they don’t have much, would give you their last penny.
“That is the part of Middlesbrough that I am really, really proud of.”
With the cost-of-living crisis, the aftermath of the pandemic and the ongoing war in Ukraine, Leon and Aaron want to help the people who are struggling the most with the continued price rises on even the most basic everyday essentials.
Leon added: “There were people at the bottom who were already struggling to begin with and now the crisis is pushing them further under the breadline, where they can’t even afford to put food on the table or provide for their families.
“Middlesbrough is just such a deprived place, a large percentage of children don’t get fed outside of school because their parents just can’t afford it. This is why we chose this charity, they do a lot of work around a lot of things that Aaron and I hold dear.”
Leon and Aaron’s GoFundMe page is currently aiming to raise up to £1,000 for the charity but the two would love to raise even more. Leon added: “We’re currently at nearly £1,000 already and I’m absolutely amazed at how generous people have been. I didn’t want to be too ambitious but if we could raise more then that would be great.”
To support Leon and Aaron on their journey, visit gofundme.com/f/ the-big-mooch. To learn more about The White Feather Project, visit whitefeatherproject.co.uk