Haverhill 90-year-old, Gordon Adams, takes on new one million steps in 40 days fund-raising challenge

A cause close to his heart has provided the motivation for a 90-year-old dubbed ‘the walking grandad’ to take a on a new fund-raising challenge.

Great-grandfather Gordon Adams had initially set his sights on completing one million steps in 40 days to raise £5,000 for The Friends of St Mary’s (FOSM) Church in Haverhill, of which he is a member.

Having already completed that, he said to himself, ‘let’s do another one million steps over the next 40 days’ - and that is what he is now doing.

With one million steps amounting to about 457 miles, Gordon (who walks an average of 12 to 14 miles every day) believes he can pass the 1,000 mile mark by the time the 80 days are up at the end of September.

Having been a bellringer since the age of 10 and a member of the tower team at St Mary’s for more than six decades, Gordon’s incentive to add to the monies he has previously raised for FOSM through his walking exploits is quite specific.

He said: “We had a survey of the bells to assess where they are and this is what made me do what I’m doing.

“I know it’s going to be many many thousands of pounds to do it, to get the bells refurbished.

“All the bells need doing because they’ve been there for 350 years, so they need attention now.

“One of the problems is that when you think of the bells, the clackers are fixed and they will only go backwards and forwards, so every time they hit the same position on the bell and that, over time, will cause stress and it can crack and that would prove very costly, so they do need what they call ‘turning’.

“They need to turn the bells 90 degrees so that it hits a different position on the bell and that is very costly and means you have to take the bells out to do it.

“What I’ve said to the Friends of St Mary’s is that this time, I would like the money to go to the bell refurbishment.

“What I’m doing really is kicking off to make people aware that we do have a problem that needs attending to.

“I’ve got a particular affection for the bells. I’ve been ringing for 80 years now and for 65 of them the Haverhill tower has been my home.”

Gordon’s daily walking routine sees him rise at 5am and after breakfasting head out for a seven mile stroll.

After stopping for a coffee he takes a round trip to The EpiCentre, adding another three miles to his daily total.

In the evening he will cover a further three miles with a walk round the floodpark.