Inspiring fundraiser from Old Warden walks 55 miles after cancer diagnosis to help charities

Judy Mansfield, 65, set out on a four-day Pilgrimage walk along the Northumbrian coastline, raising £3,000 for causes close to her heart.

£1,500 will go to Bedford Hospital's Macmillan Primrose Unit – where she is receiving chemotherapy – while the other half will be donated to a school in Ethiopia, where she volunteers as a teacher.

Judy said: "The reason I did it was something called prehabilitation. Before you start your treatment, the doctors want you to be as fit as possible, blood pressure down, head in the right place. So I thought, why not do a walk?

"I just put a note on social media and ended up raising £3,000. It's staggering."

Determined Judy began her journey in Jarrow and walked nearly all the way to Lindisfarne, including a stop at Whitley Bay with her Goddaughter, Kathryn.

A particular highlight was Durham, where Judy was born, and she took the time to visit its cathedral, where her grandfather was confirmed in 1915. She even "carried his Holy Communion book" for good luck.

Back home in Old Warden, Judy is now half way through her chemotherapy treatment, which she began in April.

She is determined raise awareness about the symptoms of bowel cancer – bleeding from your bottom, blood in your poo, diarrhoea, constipation, weight loss, tiredness, and a pain or lump in your tummy.

"Look before you flush, and don't be fobbed off, go to the doctor. If they catch it in time, the success rate is much higher. And nobody is too young for cancer," she told the Chronicle.

Judy admits that she initially "dismissed symptoms", but that "the signs were all there".

Her mother, Lilian Davies, was also treated for bowel cancer in The Primrose Unit back in 2004, making a full recovery.

Praising its staff, Judy said: "I'd like to say a huge thank you to everyone, from the receptionists and patient transport, to the surgeons and oncologists. When you walk into the chemo suite it's a place of hope. We are all warriors."

Judy turns 66 on Friday (May 17) and the birthday girl has no plans to slow down after her final treatment, an operation in August.

She is now planning her next Pilgrimage walk, while she hopes to travel back to Ethiopia next year, where she is a voluntary teacher at Lem Lem (New Beginnings) School, outside Addis Ababa.

"The government do inspections and give them [the school] so many requirements to stay open – they have done an IT lab, a second library. The money will go towards new classsrooms and they build everything themselves from the ground up,” explained Judy.

"The school has been set up for poor families; there are children from shanties who are now doctors, lawyers, nurses, engineers."

Judy has been volunteering at Lem Lem since she turned 60 - a way to "give something back" - and sponsors 18-year-old Kidist.

She would like to say a big thank you to everyone who donated, to her husband Russ Mansfield, brother Alan Holmes, and everyone at All Saints Church, Upper Caldecote, for their support.

To anyone also fighting cancer, Judy adds: "Just put one foot in front of the other."