October 21, 2026
If you know Bev, you’ll know her walking boots have seen a bit of action over the last few years, tackling Kilimanjaro in 2025. This October, they came back out again – but this challenge was always going to feel very different.
Bev, PureMaison’s Operations Director, joined Darren’s family and friends to walk the final 120 miles of the Camino de Santiago in his memory.
Darren, husband of Bev’s close friend Maggie, sadly passed away in November 2024 after being diagnosed with a glioblastoma. October would have been his 60th birthday month. And just four months before his diagnosis, Darren had walked the Camino himself.
The group decided to retrace those final miles and raise money for Prevent Breast Cancer along the way.
Miles and miles to go
Nobody eased themselves into it. Day one: 18 miles. Day two: another 18, this time in 28-degree heat. By day three, the planned 11 miles were being referred to as the “short day” – although a few blisters had arrived by then and everybody was starting to feel the previous 36.
Over the six days, the weather went from one extreme to another. There was blazing heat, then flash floods, and plenty of tired legs in between. But there was also some incredible scenery. The route was busy with pilgrims heading towards Santiago de Compostela, from experienced walkers to plenty of younger people taking on the Camino for the first time.
And wherever they went, the same words followed them: Buen Camino. It means “have a good journey”, and it’s what walkers say to one another as they pass. Bev thinks she probably said it a hundred times before the week was out!
Walking Darren’s route
The hard miles were only part of the reason everyone was there. Darren had loved his own Camino journey, and the group spent the six days remembering him as they followed the route towards Santiago.
There were stories, laughs and plenty of memories shared along the way. Bev’s husband Cliff was walking too, continuing a fundraising journey that goes back several years. Cliff and Maggie completed Everest Base Camp together in 2019 for Prevent Breast Cancer. Bev and Maggie later took on Kilimanjaro, again supporting the charity.
They were joined on the Camino by Prevent Breast Cancer Chief Executive Nikki Barraclough, who had also been part of the Everest Base Camp and Kilimanjaro challenges, as well as Lester Barr, co-founder of the charity and Consultant Breast Surgeon.
Darren had raised thousands of pounds for Prevent Breast Cancer himself over the years, so there was never much doubt about where the money from this challenge would go.
More than £26,000 for Prevent Breast Cancer
By the time the group finished the walk, more than £26,000 had been raised for Prevent Breast Cancer at Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester. That meant six days of sore feet, blisters, heat, rain and some very long stretches of road had done something pretty special. For Bev, though, the best part was finishing it together.
“It was hard going at times,” Bev said. “We were all feeling it by the end, but we had such a good group. We talked about Darren all the way, shared lots of stories and kept each other going. It was emotional, exhausting and really special.”
After the final miles into Santiago, the boots were off. And, according to Bev, they’ll be staying off for a little while yet!