Former sailor walking nearly 8,000 miles along coast for charity

By Sarah Ward via SWNS

A former Royal Navy sailor is walking around nearly 8,000 miles around the UK coast - after first coming up with the idea when he was seven-years-old.

Jim Morton, 61, set off nearly a year ago from Penistone, South Yorks, England and is currently in Edinburgh, Scotland on his 277th day of the trek.

"It's been my ambition since 1967 when I was seven years old, I was fascinated by lighthouses," he said.

"It didn't look very far. That was my ambition."

He was 60 when he set off on April 12, 2021 and expects to be 62 when he finishes the 7,500 mile trek, and praised the kindness of strangers who let him use their electricity and sleep on their driveways.

"I was 60 when I set off on this walk and I think I'll be 62 before I finish it," he said.

"The people I have met on this journey, some will be friends for life now.

"People have let us stay on their drives, use their electricity, we've had use of people's washing machines, they've fed us, they've donated, it really has been the people.

In August, he was hospitalized for three days after suffering a bleed on the brain and breaking his foot.

He arrived in Scotland in May, and in August got stuck on a ledge in the Isle of Skye and ended up in the hospital after jumping off in a bid to reach a tree - but woke up 20 ft below on a stony beach after the cliff collapsed.

He was flown from near Skye to Raigmore Hospital, Inverness, where he spent three days being treated for a bleed on the brain and a broken foot.

"Everybody was saying how fantastic the west coast of Scotland is but there are some fantastic beaches on the east. It took me seven months to get from Gretna to Cape Wrath and 13 days to get across," he said.

"The coastline and the hospitality has been fantastic ever since I crossed the border.

"It's not really about the places, it's about the people."

He is raising money for the Gurkhas after serving with them on the first Navy ship he worked on in the 1970s.

"My first ship in the Royal Navy was HMS Gurkha, I've had an affinity with them since 1977," he said.

He is hoping to raise £50,000 ($68,565) and has so far raised nearly £9,200 ($12,615).

The donations raised will go charity The Gurkha Welfare Trust, after a devastating earthquake in 2015 devastated parts of Nepal.

Jim said: "It's all to go towards helping them in Nepal, they come over here, serve for 15 or 20 years and would normally go back to Nepal and have a family but everything was lost in the earthquake."

To donate visit here.