Marathon Meg walks on after the end!

Barney had Meg walking with him for the last few days of the walk as her owners Geoff & Wendy became our support team from the Crask Inn to John O'Groats. Wendy and Meg walked with us whilst Geoff gallantly drove their camper van back and forth, sorting out logistics, serving up drinks in unlikely places and generally making our days that much easier - thanks Geoff!
The picture shows us walking a long stretch of road, something Barney normally hated but he didn't mind at all with Meg along!
That's not the end of the story for Meg however - she went on with her owners soon after and walked the Pennine Way raising over £300 for Match a Mile!

Jackie and Barney want help!

Now it's us two* asking for your help!
Final round voting in the Mountain Warehouse competition finishes soon. If you haven't voted yet please go to http://bit.ly/1eCdpJz and help us to win £10k for Guide Dogs!
*Guide Dog Jackie was with Barney at the start of the trek

Urgent call for votes

Come on folks - we need votes! We're 3rd at the moment in the Mountain Warehouse competition so your vote may make difference between winning and losing! See the last post for details.

Here is our voting page:
http://www.mountainwarehouse.com/charity/entries/barneys-long-walk--e2446.aspx

How the fund raising is going

Hello from the Barney's Long Walk team,

Although the walk ended at the beginning of August we are still collecting for Guide Dogs! We'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have donated to this very worthwhile cause.

We started out with £2500 as our goal and this was soon increased to £5500 which was reached before the trek had finished. The total now stands at almost £8000! Added to this is the amazing amount being raised by Guide Dogs on the Dogs Unite 'Match a Mile for Barney' challenge - this is now well past £14000 and as the challenge continues until the end of September we expect it to be considerably more. Well done everybody!

Well, our trek is finished but we are still looking for assistance. As you may know, we entered a Mountain Warehouse outdoor competition to win a further £10000 for Guide Dogs. You may have voted for us in the first round and I am pleased to say with your votes we made it through to the final - well done! We now need you to vote for us in the final round:

* If you voted for us in the first round, could you please spend a few minutes to repeat the process as the count has started again for the final.
* If you have not voted for us before, please do now - it's very easy and only takes a few minutes.

Either way, you can click the link below (or copy and paste it into your browser) to get to our voting page. Click the Vote Now button and enter your email address. You will receive a confirmation email with a further link to click in order to confirm your vote. Until you have done this your vote is not registered. This process is followed to avoid cheating!

Here is our voting page:
http://www.mountainwarehouse.com/charity/entries/barneys-long-walk--e2446.aspx

Many thanks and I hope we can report we have all won £10000 for Guide Dogs when voting finishes later this month!
Barney, Bob & Jos

p.s. If you want to help in another way with your dog, visit http://www.guidedogs.org.uk/dogs-unite/find-events/dogs-unite-match-a-mile-for-barney/ and sign up to the challenge which is open until 30th September

Competition Final Round

Barney's made it into the final 10 of the Mountain Warehouse competition! Please vote to help him win the £10000 prize for Guide Dogs. Even if you voted in the first round, please do so again as this is a fresh round. It's very easy - after you have voted, an email will be sent to request confirmation in a link. This is simply to stop cheating!
http://www.mountainwarehouse.com/charity/entries/barneys-long-walk--e2446.aspx

Hexham Courant

Barney gets a whole page feature in our local Hexham Courant!
Still time to match a mile - see www.DogsUnite.org.UK/match-a-mile for details.
Also donations page is still open at www.JustGiving.com/BarneysLongWalk

Postscript

As a few of you will know, our youngest grandson, Archie, was diagnosed with cancer just a few days after we started the trek. We deliberated over whether to terminate the walk but decided to continue and be prepared to finish at short notice should we be needed in Australia where he lives.
His parents, our son Dan and his partner Sally, have had a testing time as treatment progressed. They live over 200 miles from the childrens hospital in Melbourne where Archie is being treated and they have two other boys.
Fortunately, Sally's mum has been able to help out (she lives in Seattle) through a very difficult time when Archie has had chemotherapy and two operations. Now it's our turn to assist, so we are flying out to Melbourne on Wednesday to be with the boys through the next 3 months while Archie has more chemotherapy.