A Man & A Pram

Book excerpt: People travel from London to New York every day - nothing unusual about that, but if your journey took you 14 months, you might rightly wish to seek compensation from the airline! However, Mark Cundy's journey was different; his was a walking odyssey of immense proportions, covering 5,500 miles between October 2004 and December 2005 across three continents, in aid of Cancer Research UK and its overseas equivalents. Facing a lonely, often gruelling trek, Mark encountered many setbacks and obstacles en route: limited resources, accommodation problems, language barriers, extremes of climate, red tape, cultural differences and health issues, and met plenty of ‘angels' and a few ‘devils’ as his journey pressed on through Europe, across Russia and on to Australia and finally the USA. There were many times he stopped to wonder, “What am I doing?” But in true Forrest Gump style, he just kept on walking. This is an extraordinary story, told with immense humour, of true grit and determination against the odds to fulfil a dream that had been many years in the making, one that took the ‘World Walker’ through every gamut of emotion, from fear to triumph and desperation to sheer joy. It was a defining achievement. And to what does the ‘pram’ in the title refer? He didn’t really take a baby with him, did he? Well, you’ll just have to read it and see!