In July, Francesca Goodwin (S 03-08) is travelling by foot across Scotland, from St Andrews to Iona, in the first adventure of an initiative called FareWays: a collaboration between The Big Hoof charity and The British Pilgrimage Trust that explores the connections between the outdoors, story-telling and mental health in order to advocate for individual, social and environmental wellbeing.

The project, of which Francesca is a co-founder, centres around a core team of four travelling long distances by foot and horse-back throughout the UK, using ancient pilgrimage routes as a guide. 

Inviting anyone to join them for as long and in whatever way is accessible to them, they hope to to break down assumptions of what a runner, rider or hiker should look like and to open conversations around the benefits of the outdoors and mindful travel for our mental and physical health. They will be telling stories from the journey on Francesca's podcast Running on Joy.

For this first adventure, they are raising money for the incredible work of the Venture Trust and their outdoor therapy programme for 16-25 year olds and ex-service personnel. Support from the Rugbeian Community would be hugely appreciated and details of how to donate can be found here.

The team would also be delighted if any ORs would like to join for a morning or a day. Let them know you are coming here.

For further details on the project visit: www.thebighoof.com/fareways

Anyone who would be interested in lending their experience in fundraising or web development as a patron of the project, please do email Francesca: francesca@thebighoof.com