Tommo's Trek for Maddy

My name is Mark Thomson although locally (and worldwide) I’m known as Tommo hence the first part of my title for this page. 18 months ago my stepdaughter of 7 years, Maddy, passed away after a life long battle with Cystic Fibrosis (the second part of the title). Just before Maddy died her grandfather (my father-in-law) Terry Wilson had decided to do the Camino de Santiago. This is an 800+km pilgrimage beginning in France and walking across the top of Spain. He jokingly asked Maddy to join him. She never got the opportunity. So he dedicated his walk to Maddy and raised some money on a similar page to this one.

Upon his return to NZ in October last year he was contacted by a film producer who had read about Terry’s journey and the reasons behind it and wanted to know if he wanted to do it all over again as part of his upcoming project. This project is a doco-movie about a small group of Kiwis and Aussies walking the Camino each with their own story to tell. Terry agreed to this idea and I asked if I could tag along for the walk to which the producer, Fergus, agreed.

Now people who know me well will realise that an adventure like this is well outside my comfort zone. You see before I began training I was a 150+kg beer swilling couch potato. So as much as I am dedicating my journey to Maddy, it is also about her younger siblings. Mitchel who is 5 and Lexi (4) were on a path to growing up without a father the way I was heading. However since I began training 10 weeks ago I have walked an average of 50km’s a week and have so far lost 17kg. I can tell you walking now is a lot easier than when I began.

So on the 10th of April Myself, Terry and 4 others, along with 3 film crew, will be meeting up in St Jean Pied De Port to begin our pilgrimage the next day. We plan on walking for the next 35 days at an average of 22.5km’s per day.

As Terry did the fundraising last time, I thought this time I would give it a go. All money that I raise will be split evenly between Cystic Fibrosis NZ and Cure Kids NZ. So if you are in a situation where you are able too, please help me to help other families who have children with a life threatening illness. However if you did donate to Terry’s page the first time please do not feel obliged to give again. I am sure that there is a whole lot of other people that got missed the first time around. I will be giving daily updates on Facebook throughout my journey if there is Wi-Fi available so feel free to follow me as I try and complete this incredible walk.