Walk70 - 20yds - Total 1001 miles and 20 yds - To Go 0 miles

Palace of Westminster - St Stephen's Entrance and Hall, Central Lobby, House of Commons Chamber, House of Lords Chamber, The Terrace and 1000miles4hope Dining room.

In life there are a few very very special moments. Against a background of ooooh's and aaaaaah's, cheerful chatter and the smiling faces of close friends this evening was up there with the best. Friends and guests dolled up like film stars gathered in St Stephen's Hall for a delightful dance with the senses. Standing together a couple of feet away from where Sir Thomas More was sentenced to death. From that moment on it got better and better until there was the call of 'time....ladies and gentlemen' just before Big Ben struck twelve.

The superteam of Tracy, Charlotte, Sara and Andrew (finally a decent photographer on the team!) got on with the task of dressing tables. Name cards all sorted and in order soon become chaos as Rob offers to help and somehow shuffles all the cards to create confusion. In St Stephen's Hall a number of our guests show enterprising spirit by joining the University of Birmingham guided tour of the Palace. Our host, David Mowat, the MP for Warrington South, took a small group of us on a tour. It was an amazing feeling standing at the despatch box where Churchill, Thatcher, Blair and others have stood at moments of history. I lean across wave my finger wildly at Karen across at the other box and demand 'will the right honourable lady answer the question?'. To which she replies 'if the right honourable gentleman will ask one.' In the members lobby we look at the full size statues of Churchill and Thatcher and wonder about the decision process that will determine a bust or a full statue for Blair in the future. Interesting to note that Chamberlain has no statue at all! We all meet up on the terrace and David takes a second tour. The House of Lords was locked so David arranged for it to be unlocked so our guests could go in on their own private little tour.

Rob and I do photocalls with David and then with Simon Gillespie, the CEO of the MS Society, and Professor Robin Franklin, from Cambridge University Myelin Repair Centre. We are then filmed doing our last twenty yards through a finishing tape and handing over a cheque to Robin Franklin drawn on the bank of Rob and Len for £52,000.

Guests mingle on the Terrace telling impressive tales and titbits they have picked up on their tour. Tracy, Charlotte and Sara all radiant and glowing over this fantastic event they have put together so well. Karen and Sou proud of their men and no doubt already hatching new schemes to get them out of the house for long periods again. How they enjoyed the peace.

The dining room is adorned with pictures from the walk. Each one bringing back such powerful memories of the moment. Shepherd Rob followed by his beloved sheep and me asleep on a bench after a long Forest ascent and before an appropriately named 'World's End' walk along the edge of death and many more. We think about the people who must have sat in this room through history and the decisions taken. David gives a perfect welcoming address. I give a speech about living with MS and the inspiration for the campaign. Simon tells of the great things the MS Society is doing for people with MS and the big challenges ahead for the organisation.
As ever Robin is perfect charm and oozing intellect as he tells us of the advances he and his team are making and in doing so flies the banner of hope for us all. Not only does he look like Colin Firth but my great friend Paul Tasker afterwards said Robin's speech had all the touching elements of Hugh Grant in the wedding speech in Four Weddings and a Funeral.


Once the artichoke, beef wellington and honeycomb are consumed the buzz reaches a crescendo and a perfect evening draws to a close.
Amazing.

Walk 69 - 20.2 miles - Total 1001 miles - To Go 0 milesiles

Cambridge Station, Stourbridge Common, Chesterton Fen, Baits Bite Lock, Milton Fen, Waterbeach, Bottisham Lock, Clayhithe, Horningsea and Cambridge University Colleges.



It hasn't sunk in yet but we did it. 1000 miles of walking since Jan 4th when we started on a cold morning outside the bank of England. Today planning to end before dark we met at Cambridge Station at 7am. Already busy with commuters streaming in on the early commute to the Citadel of Capital in London town. We meet up and are ready to go but not before 'you are not going to believe what I forgot today' from Rob. I tried three guesses which were wrong and he then tells me he has forgotten his walking boots. So off we set with Rob taking on the planned 19 mile walk in totally the wrong shoes. This later led to much pain.

We pass a street with a coffee shop every five yards and decide to get some miles under our belt before first tea and breakfast for Rob. Big mistake. We are soon out of town along the Fen River path and no sign of opportunities for refreshment. Fortunatly we meet Kay who works at the University and get chatting. She directs us to a Tesco nearby where Rob can have his sausage sandwich and luke warm latte and I have a luke warm tea. A real disappointment. At this point Rob asks me if I were having my last meal before execution because I had split an infinitive what would I eat. I thought for a moment and said I would start with some abalone and follow it with roast halibut and hollandaise sauce. He said 'boy we so different...for me it would definitely be a sausage sandwich!'. Even a Tesco sausage sandwich I ask in horror. Absolutely or something like that was the reply.

The rowers are out early and the Cam is full early in the morning with microphoned cox instructions to crew and the cyclist on the towpath offering his or her coaching. Rob is critical of the Cam and tells me as an Oxford man the waters are much better over there. Later on he does add that the Cambridge lot might be smarter (big admission) but Oxfords water is better.

It is very flat along the walk with many colourful autumn scenes. We stop off in Waterbeach for tea and a lesson in copy and paste on the iPhone4.





The walk back is a mix of reminscing about great moments and memories along the way and ticking off the last ten miles one by one. We snake through the colleges of Jesus, Kings and Corpus Christie using a Citywire HD camera to catch moments for a newsclip. In Corpus Christie we celebrate 1000 miles.

It feels strange finishing and probably hasn't sunk in yet. At various times we have talked philosophy, economics, football, cognition, psychology, the meaning of life, reality and truth. We admit to each other the moments when we thought we had taken on too much and were close to our personal limits. Somehow we supported each other and drove each other on and it seems we have now done it. And what a lot of fun we had along the way....and what a great mate Rob is. We now hope the money raised will make a difference, raise hope and bring nearer the date when there is a treatment for people with MS.