Amelie Rochester and Katie Lloyd, who are both Ladies’ College students, had never done the walk before and said they had not appreciated how long it would take them, nor that it would leave them aching and with blistered feet. But both have undertaken charity fundraisers before, with Amelie doing the 30BaysIn30Days event earlier in the year and Katie raised funds for the Priaulx Premature Baby Foundation’s Southampton apartment, Aggie’s Burrow, last year.
‘Charity is very very close to my heart,’ she said. ‘My mum said I should do the World Aid Walk,’ said Amelie. ‘I said I’d do it as long as I have a team and I called up Katie and she said “OK”.’
They came up with the team name The Moody Melons: ‘We’re at that stage in life where we are going to start getting moody, and we both love watermelons,’ said Katie.
Although their team was due to be nine-strong, in the end only four, including the two girls, took part, plus Amelie’s dog, Sunny.
As well as sponsorship, Katie also raised money by selling off her old toys and unwanted clothes, such as her old Melrose uniform. Participants were able to choose where to send their donations from among five charities and Action Aid and This is Epic benefitted from the £611 the friends raised.
While, for two youngsters, they may have raised a lot of money the girls did not set any records for their finishing time: ‘We were quite slow,’ said Amelie.
‘We were among the last in.’
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