A UNIVERSITY lecturer from Chester has created a novel fundraising fitness challenge asking people to donate kilometres as well as money to help her complete a virtual journey across Europe in support of a leading cancer charity.

Jacqueline Taylor, a lecturer and artist researcher at Birmingham City University, came up with the idea of a “summer move-a-thon” to raise funds for Cancer Research UK in memory of her mum, who passed way from the disease.

Jacqueline, who now lives in the Selly Oak area of Birmingham, said: “This year marks 10 years since my mum died from cancer and I wanted to do something to honour her memory while helping others affected by the condition.”

The 37-year-old’s plan was to recruit volunteers to help her complete a sponsored, online trek from her mum’s home city of Aachen in Germany to Chester, where Jacqueline grew up. The challenge took place in July and August this year.

Jacqueline plotted out the 840 kilometre long route using Google Maps and, with the help of her brothers and sisters, put out calls on social channels such as Facebook to family, friends and neighbours to walk, cycle or run a distance and then donate whatever amount they had done to the course she designed.

The response to Jacqueline’s appeal was phenomenal. Initially, only family members and others she knew closely took part in the challenge.

But soon, word spread among online running communities, and others, and then people from across the UK and Europe came forward to donate the kilometres they covered as well as money they raised from their endeavours.

Volunteers tracked their activity on popular fitness apps like Strava and shared screenshots with Jacqueline. She then updated the route she created on her JustGiving fundraising page to keep followers informed of the progress being made virtually along the course from Aachen to Chester.

Participants ranged in age and ability from seasoned runners and cyclists to complete novices with the youngest being only two years old and the oldest, Jacqueline’s 91-year-old grandmother, who contributed 2.7 kilometres, which she walked in separate stints on her Zimmer frame!

Jacqueline herself completed just over 300 kilometres over the four-week summer challenge and in total an incredible 2,500 kilometres – over three times the distance between Aachen to Chester – were donated and almost £1,000 raised.

As a result, Jacqueline used the extra kilometres collected to create a new round trip, which took in both cities but included detours to Austria and Italy.

Jacqueline added: “I’ve always been keen on fitness so I thought of setting up some kind of activity-based challenge. I have really fond memories of trips we took when I was young to my mum’s home city of Aachen and I got thinking of the journey she made from there to Chester, where I’m from.

"I wanted to recreate this trip virtually so I came up with a route that could be done on foot or by bike between both cities, inviting people to join me on the way.”

Jacqueline was delighted with the response she received to her appeal, which she attributes to people’s goodwill and a new found enthusiasm among the public both for exercise and a desire for shared experiences as a result of Covid-19.

She continued: “It would have been great to have done the route for real but that would have been really challenging in practice, especially with everything happening around Covid and there still being restrictions in place and different policies across different countries.

“But on the plus side, so many people have taken up exercise over the last year, and as a result of lockdown, have been wanting to connect with others. There has been this huge movement with people doing their own thing and then logging what they did to take part in virtual events with others.

“I think that might have helped trigger the interest in my fundraiser as it was designed as a collaborative event. But I was still overwhelmed by the response and was especially touched by those who came forward who had been affected by cancer in some way themselves. That meant a lot to me and I’m extremely thankful to and proud of everyone who took part.”

Jacqueline’s summer move-a-thon JustGiving page remains open and money can still be donated at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/summer-move-a-thon.