10 million steps take Haverhill 'Walking Grandad' Gordon Adam to a unique total

Having already walked 4,400 miles in just under 13 months and achieved his initial goal a great-grandfather decided to go that little bit further, in order to satisfy a quirk of mathematics.

Haverhill resident Gordon Adams, also known as the ‘Walking Grandad’, set himself the task of completing the extra mileage as part of his aim of raising money for The Friends of St Mary’s Church, of which he is a member.

Having walked 4,000 miles in 2021, he set about doing another 300 miles before February 1, the day on which he turned 88.

But having reached 4,300 miles before February, he spotted an idiosyncrasy in the making that spurred him on to go even further.

He said: “I was about four days within reaching the end of January and I thought, it’s just a quirky little thing, but If I walk another 44 miles that would be 4,444 miles, which, if you add 44 to 44 you would get the number that is my age, 88.”

Gordon, who has also been a a bellringer at the church since moving to Haverhill in 1958, records all of his walking on his Fitbit.

It showed that, with a few days left of his challenge he was approaching the figure of 10million steps, so he used the opportunity to hit that total as another motivation to walk that bit further.

Over the 13 months he has averaged 25,000 steps and 11.11m every day and he has also surpassed the £1,500 target set for the fund-raiser.

The funds will be used to pay for church repairs and improve its toilet facilities.

After his story first featured in the Echo in early 2022, Gordon appeared on regional TV and radio, which led him to say: “Im very pleased (with the total raised) and I would like to express my gratitude for all of the very kind donations, they’ve all been very generous and I really do appreciate that and also I would like to say it’s opened my world a little bit more, because there are people recognising me now.”

To sponsor Gordon, who admits to not now being able to ‘give up the habit of doing 25,000 steps each day’ go to www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/thewalkinggrandad