Kenny tackles three walks for Parkinson’s
He’s a hardy Tarbert fisherman, he’s the Deputy LordLieutenant for Tarbert, North Kintyre and South Knapdale and he’s just returned from an epic 230-mile charity walk ... it’s safe to say, Kenneth MacNab MBE DL is not your average 69-year-old, writes Rita Campbell.
Kenny has been raising money for Parkinson’s UK for almost 10 years.
It all started when his two good friends and drinking buddies at The Corner House, Duggie MacNeill and Martin Jefferies, were diagnosed with Parkinson’s at around the same time.
This prompted the bold Kenny to jump-start his fundraising efforts with a skydive on January 26, 2015.
And his hard work has continued ever since. It is indeed pertinent that he praised the service of others in his community while presenting the coronation medal to Tarbert Fire Crew members recently.
He is pleased to say that Duggie and Martin are both doing well. But during his years of fundraising, he has met many who deal with this terrible disease daily.
After a year-and-a-half break from his last 500-mile walk, he was off again this spring.
His most recent challenge involved walking The Cowal Way, The Three Lochs Way and The John Muir Way in one continuous effort.
It was eventful, to say the least. Due to the amount of rain the country has experienced recently, much of the walks were damaged in places.
And when he planned his journey, there was nothing on the Cowal Way website to warn that it was closed, leading to the resourceful Kenny finding unconventional ways to complete his effort.
The walks added together would normally be 225 miles but, due to the number of detours he was forced to take around damaged ground, he ended up completing more like 230 miles.
He headed off at the end of March and returned home on April 14.
The Three Lochs Way runs from Tarbet, down the side of Loch Long and up to
Helensburgh. Kenny then doubled back to Portavadie and onwards to Glendaruel and and continued to Lochgoilhead.
From Lochgoilhead he went onwards to Arrochar, back towards Tarbet but down to Helensburgh behind Loch Coulport and Faslane.
The John Muir Way starts at Helensburgh and finishes on the east coast at Dunbar.
Kenny chuckled: “It was
Duggie McNeill, Julie Ionta from Parkinson's UK, quiz-master Kenneth MacNab and Margaret McNeill handing over a cheque from one of the many fundraising nights held in the Corner House pub. harsh weather, harsh going, but I enjoyed it. I’ve never done any of the walks before, so I thought If I did them all at the same time ... that’s them out of the road.”
It was on a section of the Cowal Way that he realised a section of the path had been washed away – so he slid down the side of a hill on a sign he found, using his walking poles as brakes.
He said: “I was walking down Glendaruel to Strachur when I came down Glen Branter.
“It was a forestry road down through the trees. I was staying in Strachur that night.
“I came down the hill and saw this dip across the road and the road had disappeared.
“The whole bridge was washed away with these rainstorms we’ve been having. There was 30-40ft where there was nothing, other than a 60ft drop down to the river.
“I checked my app and I would have had to walk for miles to get round. I found a wooden sign that had fallen.
“There were a lot of loose small stones on the bank. If I had walked down I would have stumbled.
“I found a (shallow) bit of river where I could cross over the stones. I put the wood down using my walking poles as a brake and slid down like a sledge.
“I got across the river no bother. They were pretty shocked at the Forestry offices when I came down, because they knew it was closed.”
Reflecting on his travels, he added: “The sad thing about the whole walk was the amount of damage that has been done by the rainstorms. Burns bursting their banks, trees down. The volunteers who run these things don’t have a lot of money and they are going to have their work cut out trying to fix a lot of damage.”
He said that he had even had to make detours across flooded ground on the more high profile John Muir Way.
There was also a day of snow and sleet when he set off from Balloch.
He said: “I just got the head down and got on with it.
“I was shocked at the amount of rain they have had on the East Coast; the last three days the fields were flooded. I got more mud on my boots than I did on the West Coast. I was surprised at that.”
Kenneth’s fundraiser for Parkinson’s UK has raised in £4,306.