My new challenge. To go barefoot 100% for a whole year!!

Starting on June 1st 2025 and ending on June 1st 2026.

Why barefoot you might ask. I have been itching for a new challenge for a while now. I started the year with the challenge to exercise for 20 minutes a day for a year. I failed this challenge due to my sister being in hospital and me visiting her there in Basingstoke, I just had no time to fit any exercise in. Or more to the point, the motivation. I needed to be there with her, not out exercising. More important things in life than a challenge.

Sadly my sister Tracy passed away on March 30th, on her 54th birthday. 6 weeks previously she choked on a sandwich, died for 30 minutes before being resuscitated. She was initially in a coma for a few weeks but then when she came out of the coma, her brain was so severely damaged from the lack of oxygen, that she was unresponsive to anything. Her eyes would open when she was awake, but they did not move or blink. There was no acknowledgement to you touching her hand or anything. The decision was made to turn off her life support, and she passed away peacefully 5 days later.

She died because she was let down by the people who were caring for her. She was in a mental health hospital for 2 days, under round the clock surveillance. However, the staff in charge of watching her, left her unattended for 5 minutes, and in this time she choked on a sandwich. When they returned they thought she was asleep and more time passed before they realised she was not breathing. Had they been doing their job, my sister Tracy would still be alive. She had suffered with her mental health since 1997 and diagnosed with bi-polar, she occasionally had episodes which resulted in her being sectioned.. When your family and loved ones are sectioned under the mental health act, you expect them to be looked after. What Tracy and us a family went through was horrific and I want to raise awareness of what happened, of the failings within mental health care, and awareness of mental health issues in general. I hope that my challenge will raise awareness as well as lots of money for Mind, an amazing charity providing services for those who need it.

I chose to go barefoot because it is such a visual thing, that anyone who sees me will see me barefoot. And this was the best way I could think of getting as many people as possible to know about the challenge. Being barefoot for me represents toughness, struggles, mindfulness, homelessness, mental health, difficulties, life, strength, weaknesses, being judged, perceptions and breaking down barriers.

I have no doubt in my mind that this challenge is going to be difficult. The nature of my job as a dog walker makes it increasingly difficult but it would not be a challenge if it was going to be easy.

I have never gone barefoot before. Barely even in the home, unless showering or sleeping. I would always wear socks (odd ones of course) around the home. I don’t think I’ve ever walked barefoot on grass, and rarely on the beach. So this challenge is opening up a whole load of new experiences for me.

I came up with the idea after being inspired by people who run barefoot.. I did a whole bunch of research and made sure it was going to be possible. Before announcing it to anyone, I tested out barefoot for the first time at work, whilst walking round the fields. I loved how the grass felt under my feet, it was like a whole mind blowing sensory experience. Then I tried to walk on the gravelly car park and omg this hurt so bad I couldn’t do more than a couple of steps. Strangely, the difficulty of this made me more determined to take on the challenge.

The more I thought about the challenge, the more it made sense to me that this was what I needed to do. So I signed up with Mind to do a fundraising event and created my just giving page.

Telling my wife Leanne went down like a lead balloon. Understandably she is concerned for my safety etc. I’m still trying to convince her that this will be a good thing. I guess only time will tell.

I have spent the last 2 weeks training my feet. Getting them used to being barefoot. Testing out new surfaces and building up strength. In this time I have gone from not even being able to step on the gravel on my driveway, to walking across it and putting out the recycling bins. It still hurts like hell and I am very slow, but I am doing it and it is slowly getting easier. I have walked on grass, wood, dirt, twigs, small gravel, concrete, tarmac. Nothing has been an issue for me except for the gravel, so if I can conquer the gravel I will be happy. Other than the terrain, the temperature is the next big challenge. Too hot in the sun and too cold in the winter, but hopefully my feet will become tougher and more acclimatised for this to not pose a real problem.

I am genuinely excited to get started on June 1st. One more week of training to go and I think I will be ready to manage the gravel 100% of the time. I can’t wait to see what adventures I can get up to, and all the new things my feet can experience. I will be documenting my journey on this blog, on Instagram and on Facebook.

If you would like to sponsor me, here is the link to my fundraising page

https://www.justgiving.com/page/barefootnic?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=CL&utm_campaign=015

I won’t spam you with photos of my feet, but here’s a couple of me on different surfaces 😂

Thank you for reading and supporting me in this challenge.

Barefoot for 1 year.

#barefootnic