The residents of Crace’s Goodwin Retirement Village are walking 50,000 steps in 12 hours for an important cause
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It’s all to raise funds and awareness for dementia.
Taking steps to create a better future for those living with and impacted by dementia, on Thursday 21 March between 7 am and 7 pm, the residents of Goodwin Retirement Village in Crace will be walking 50,000 steps in 12 hours – and they need your help.
Raising money for Dementia Australia to fund important research into this killer disease – according to the organisation, dementia is the second leading cause of death of all Australians – the task might sound massive, but for resident and event founder Sue Brudenall, the walk is an easy way to help the estimated 421,000 Australians living with a form of dementia.
“I haven’t got a personal connection to it, but everyone knows someone or has a member of the family who’s in some way affected by dementia,” she says.
“Most mornings I go up and over the Hilltop Reserve, which is here near our Goodwin Village in Crace, and I was doing that when the idea came to me that we, the residents of Crace, could do some walking to raise funds for the cause. A lot of the villagers here like walking, and I had just been reading some statistics about the increasing number of dementia cases and how it will soon be the number one cause of death in Australia.”
“Now and then we hear there’s a possible cure in sight but this still hasn’t eventuated so it seems more funds directed to research would be a help.”
Inspired to do something good to make a change, the task from there was to determine how a village of 170 residents – the youngest aged 62 and the oldest aged 98 – could all be involved with minimum effort and maximum effect. Remembering Captain Tom Moore and his walk around his garden to raise money for the NHS Charities Together during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Sue realised Goodwin Crace could emulate his efforts. And from there the 50,000 Steps for Dementia Research walk was born.
“His goal was to raise £1,000 by his hundredth birthday and he eventually raised £29 million! So, the idea of walking the circumference of our village was based on that, however, I have no expectations of raising such vast sums,” says Sue.
“We’ve set ourselves a modest goal and a reasonable number of steps to achieve.”
Originally setting a goal to raise $2,000, Goodwin Crace has already met their target. But as the day of the walk approaches, they’re hoping that the local community can rally and donate a few more dollars as the residents try and complete as many circuits around the circumference of Crace Village as possible (which they approximate to be 1000 steps per lap).
Walking solo and in groups, they’ll be grabbing their walking frames, walking sticks, walking poles, and even their pets to reach their goal. And with the average age of the residents 79 years old, it’s no easy feat.
“The oldest resident has just turned 98, he’s an avid walker and he walks with a walking frame…he was actually the first person to sign up for this event and he’s very enthusiastic to be part of it! He’s agreed to lead up off on a circuit around the village once we have our official launch at 10.30 am,” says Sue.
“At any time between 7 am and 7 pm, residents can walk and have their steps counted. They can walk at their own pace and do as many steps as they want or as few, they can be assisted by walking sticks, and walking frames, some will have Nordic walking poles – there’s no pressure on them to reach individual targets. It’s very much ‘enjoy what you’re doing, and your steps will be counted’.”
Fairly confident that they will reach 50,000 steps by the end of the day thanks to the collective effort of everyone involved, Sue says that Goodwin Crace might also be joined by residents from some of the other Goodwin Retirement Villages and that on the day they’re expecting over 100 people completing circuits.
Asking for support in the form of donations, they’re not looking for more people to join the walk, all the residents are hoping for is to double what they’ve already raised.
“Dementia is a terrible illness which takes many forms…it’s a disease that perhaps certainly most older people fear as such a soul-destroying illness,” says Sue.
“It robs people of their personality, their identity, and their desires. And it’s so sad for families to see this happen to someone they love.”
“Dementia Australia has a current target to raise over a million dollars to assist the over 40000 Australians already living with dementia so what we’re doing will perhaps assist in a small way to reach this goal.”
It might be a small goal, but it’s a mighty effort – one that will (pun not intended) go down in memory as one of the most wholesome fundraising efforts of 2024.
