Walk your own way with The Ramblers
We can’t talk about our walking for charity app without mentioning the importance of preserving our freedom to roam. From 16th – 26th September, we’re asking our community of trundl members to walk their own way, in their own time, to support The Ramblers, an organisation dedicated to preserving pathways and encouraging self-led exploration through our beautiful countryside.
So how did we get our freedom to roam, and why should we protect it?
Back in November 2000, the British Government finally passed new legislation called The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 (it’s dead catchy, we know!) , the purpose of which was to give everyone in the UK the legal right to walk in open landscapes without the fear of trespassing. Suddenly, we could enjoy our beautiful island home without constraint, hurray!
Charities like The Ramblers have worked tirelessly in a campaign to expand this freedom to walk in nature, ideally starting from our own doorsteps. You’d think that stepping outside and being able to walk is relatively easy, but a very recent study by The Ramblers and NEF Research has revealed both the huge benefits of roaming and also the unequal access to footpaths that exists across the British countryside.
Walking in nature through our foot path network boosts health and wellbeing
The key findings of The Ramblers and NEF Research included:
🌳 Paths add over 3,000 years of healthy life to the population, worth £2 billion in saved costs and improved personal productivity.
⚖️ But, and there’s no other way to couch this, it’s the old, the healthy, the wealthy and the white who enjoy the best access to paths. Others are missing out.
💰 Residents of the richest areas of England & Wales have 80% more paths than the most deprived.
🏠 Residents of the most white-dominated areas have 144% more paths than the most ethnically diverse.
❤️ Where health is worst across England and Wales, the number of paths to help you explore the countryside is also lowest.
71% of those surveyed in a YouGov poll wholeheartedly agreed that improving our national path networks and enabling greater connection to nature is significant to rebuilding the health and wellbeing of current and future generations.
We’re grateful for the hard work of outdoor charities like The Ramblers and are extremely proud to support them through our fundraising walks across the year.
By the way..
In case you haven’t used our walking app before, you can download the trundl app from the relevant app store, sign up for free for 21 days and press “Go trundling” every time you walk your own way by going for a stroll, taking the dog for a walk or following some of this country’s incredible paths through moors, mountains and the not-so-occasional muddy puddle. All your walks add up on the app, but there’s no need to raise any funds as trundl donates 30% of your membership, £3.99 per month and our brand partners top up those donations instead of paying an advertising fee. And if you walk rather than drive, you can track your CO2 savings and for every 500kg that we save as a community, we’ll plant a school orchard.
