Former Wales rugby star James Hook completes 100-mile hike from Tenby to Mumbles for Wales Air Ambulance

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Former Wales and British and Irish Lions rugby international James Hook has completed his 100-mile hike for the lifesaving Wales Air Ambulance charity, after setting off from the seaside town of Tenby to take on ‘Hooky’s Hike’. James has a personal connection to the Wales Air Ambulance after they saved the life of his youngest son, Harrison, and became an ambassador for the lifesaving service back in 2021. After seeing the Charity’s appeal for supporters to join their annual fundraiser, Walk Wales, which coincides with the Charity marking 50,000 missions, the Welsh Great decided to take on his own version of the event – Hooky’s Hike which saw James tackle 100 miles over five days this month, aiming to ‘raise awareness and funds’ for the Charity. James said: “The Wales Air Ambulance Charity is incredibly close to mine and my family’s heart. On the day that I proposed to my wife, Kim, they flew to the aid of my son who was just a baby at the time. They’re about to embark on 50,000 missions, and my son is one of them. “I have been an ambassador for a few years now, and this is my opportunity to give something back through raising awareness and funds. “I really hope that we can raise a lot of money in the process, and that the public will support my challenge because you never know when you or your family may need the Charity’s help. The Charity hopes that James’ epic challenge will encourage supporters to take part in their own Walk Wales event. Walk Wales is an annual fundraiser which allows participants to walk, jog or run, different distances each year, whilst raising funds. This year, to mark the milestone of 50,000 missions, the Charity is asking supporters to walk, run or jog 50 miles throughout the month of June. James started his challenge at the Wales Air Ambulance Charity shop in Tenby on Upper Frog Street on June 4, and headed towards Laugharne to complete day one. On day two he left Laugharne to Kidwelly; and then onto Llanelli the following day.  Day four saw Jame hike to Rhossili; before his last 20-mile stretch on the last day of the challenge saw him walk to the seaside village of Mumbles. Welsh Air Ambulance crew members and a few past patients too, joined him along the way!

Transcript

00:00Yeah, so it's Hockey's Hike, I'm doing a hike from Tenby to Mumbles, a 100 mile challenge,

00:06roughly about 20 miles a day, so tough, it's been a bit of fun, we've encountered some

00:12good characters, some generous people, we've had some encounters with some cows, some bloke

00:16on a tuk-tuk chased us down the road to give us a donation, so it's been good fun.

00:21Fantastic, and what made you choose to do this challenge?

00:25So I've been a supporter of the Wales Air Ambulance for a good while, I've been an ambassador

00:29for three or four years, it's an amazing charity, so close to my heart, and I suppose I'm not

00:35the hero in all this, it's people like Dewi who are the heroes, the critical care paramedics

00:40who are amazing, so it's all for them really.

00:56So we've joined along the walk with Alan, who's a past patient of the Wales Air Ambulance,

01:02and it's probably safe to say, Alan, without the Wales Air Ambulance you probably wouldn't

01:05be here today, is that correct?

01:07That's correct, in 2022 they saved my life from a cardiac arrest while playing walking

01:12football and I wouldn't be able to walk with you today without them.

01:17We rely on the funding so much, £11.2 million the Wales Air Ambulance need each year to

01:21keep the helicopters in the sky, the RRVs, the cars on the road, so it's an incredible

01:25charity and you just can't do enough, can you?

01:27You can't do enough, I mean how do you say to somebody, we've saved your life, you just

01:31need to raise money, raise awareness, just keep doing what you're doing, and this walk

01:34is absolutely fantastic because what you're doing is raising so much awareness across

01:39the south west of Wales, it's just brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

01:42It's a pleasure, it was great for you to join us mate, keep going.

01:45We'll keep going.

01:47We are at day 2, Hugley's Ike, we're off from Larn to Kidwelly, as you can see, majority

01:56of it today, first 14 miles are pretty much all road, so got to keep the toes in line

02:02yeah, so we nip and tuck with some of the traffic, but we've got Simon in front, how

02:07are you feeling Simon boy?

02:08Amazing, day 2!

02:10He's always amazing, but just want to thank all the nation's supporters, check the

02:16stats this morning, over 3,000 pounds so far, so obviously it's really tough times

02:20out there at the moment, so all your generous donations are really appreciated, so we're

02:25really grateful for that, and we'll keep you updated, nice one.

02:30So we're on day 4, 2 days to go, we're going from Lougher to Rossilly today, and we've

02:35been joined by another 2 critical care practitioners, Derwyn and Kat, you saw Dewey joining yesterday,

02:42you fancied it didn't you guys?

02:44Absolutely, I just thought we'd do our bit for this great charity that we work for, and

02:50seeing first hand, day to day, how important this service is to the whole of Wales, so

02:55we thought we'd just do our bit and join James and his efforts this morning.

02:58I appreciate it guys, thanks for your feedback.

03:01Yeah absolutely, always here to support our service, and support James, what a great effort

03:05James is doing, make sure you give him a wave later today if you see him.

03:08It's a pleasure guys, you guys are amazing.

03:10Dave, sign that in the background, there they are man.

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