A 90-YEAR-OLD woman has completed a 100km walking challenge for charity.

Joyce Cook completed the feat last month to support the charity Cure Parkinson's.

Born and raised in in Llangollen but now living in Hertfordshire, Joyce joined by 18 family members on the challenge, who collectively walked a staggering 2,932km to raise funds and awareness for the charity, with the challenge culminating in a four-day homage to Llangollen at the end of the month.

 

Family joined Joyce Cook for thefinal few steps of her walking challenge.

Family joined Joyce Cook for thefinal few steps of her walking challenge.

 

Joyce and her family were thrilled by the support they received from friends and strangers alike, including from locals in Trevor, Froncysyllte, Chirk and Betws-y-Coed. The local community donated and gave great encouragement almost every step of the way, and that's a lot of steps. Joyce's wrist-mounted Fitbit device recorded 235,041.

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The family made the trip to Llangollen to celebrate Joyce's challenge and to get some extra steps in. They embarked on a number of group walks, enjoying time together whilst also raising awareness of Parkinson's.

The entire Cook family alongside Llangollen canal.The entire Cook family alongside Llangollen canal. (Image: Cure Parkinson's)

Their time spent walking around Llangollen was a highlight for all the family, and was a great way for the Cooks to bond and visit their roots by enjoying the beautiful village of Joyce's childhood. This included her first family home, a single room in Castle Street, above what is now Cottage Tearooms & Bistro, into which fitted the family of five, and the 1914-1918 War Memorial in the centre of the village showing the name of Joyce's grandfather, William Clutton.

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For the Cook family, supporting Cure Parkinson's is a personal cause as Joyce's son, Will, was close friends with the late Tom Isaacs, one of the founders of the charity. Will is also the former CEO and current chairman of the development board for the charity. Tom was also godfather to Joyce's grandson, Ben Cook.

Joyce said: "It started when my son, Will, became involved in Cure Parkinson's because his very best friend, Tom Isaacs, developed Parkinson's when he was 26. I was also very fond of Tommy, and anything that helps Cure Parkinson's is amazing."

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Throughout her challenge, Joyce was inspired by meeting others affected by Parkinson's and handed out cards to explain her goal and commitment to finding a cure. Joyce added: "It's meeting people, having chats with them, and giving them the cards which say exactly why we're doing it. It's heartbreaking at times because you meet people who are affected by Parkinson's. You meet different people who've got it, so that makes you more keen to carry on fundraising."

Despite completing her challenge, Joyce is already thinking of future walks to continue supporting the charity, planning another trip to Wales next October for another walk.

Helen Matthews, Cure Parkinson's CEO, said: "Fundraising support is absolutely critical for the charity to enable us to achieve our goal. We aim to cure Parkinson's and the only way we will do this is through the help of all our incredible supporters - it's as simple as that!"

• If you would like to donate to Joyce's sponsored walk, visit: tinyurl.com/569y63ra