Camino for CAFOD - Blog 1

Blog 1 - Camino and Cancer: Ferry to Santander

Ann Milner from the parish of Our Lady Immaculate and St Andrew in Hitchin writes: I am starting this blog while at Waterloo, sitting at the railway station with a ticket to my destination. It's only 14:45 and I have another 45 mins before meeting my friend, Yvonne, who is travelling with me for a few days. Our train is at 16:30, leaving us plenty of time to get a snack for the train and plenty of time before check-in for our onward travel.

So, what has led up to this?

Last Christmas Eve, I was informed, after several tests, that I had lung cancer. The news was not entirely bad as the oncologist said they thought they could cure it though the treatment would be intensive. 'But', she continued, "we feel your body will be able to withstand it." Despite my reading several times that there was a huge backlog in cancer diagnoses and indeed treatment, by mid-January I had started a four-week course of chemo and radiotherapy.

I was unbelievably blessed by my parish, my family and my friends. When I told our Parish Pastoral Assistant about my diagnosis - I was explaining why I would be taking a step back from parish activities - she was adamant that people in the parish would help me get to the hospital. It was a pain to get to by public transport - several bus changes, never mind the risk of catching COVID on public transport at a time when I would be particularly vulnerable. I thought this was far too much to ask but she was adamant. Right enough, in less than 24 hours of her sending out a request for help, she had a full rota of volunteer drivers as well as back up drivers. I was (and still am) so very grateful to be part of such a generous, loving, giving parish. Added to that were the many, many messages of prayers, encouragement and support from friends and family. One person told me that she had sent an angel to be with me. My son came to stay with me during the last week of treatment.

About two weeks into the treatment, I felt it would be good to have something to aim for afterwards, after I had recovered, something physical. I thought of the many deeply spiritual pilgrimages I had done in the past and wondered if I would be capable of doing one after the treatment, with vague ideas about giving thanks for my recovery and praying for all those people who had been so kind and generous with their time.

I idly perused ferry options to Spain. My knowledge of the famous Camino de Santiago in Spain meant that I knew one could walk quite short daily distances and still be able to find food and accommodation. Leon is a beautiful city on the Camino and it would be lovely to start there, I could get the ferry to Santander and a train down to Leon and start walking from there. But the ferry was so expensive and would I be fit enough? Something within me said, 'Take the plunge, book it'. And so I did. Booking the ferry from Portsmouth to Santander, leaving on 2 May, I hoped I would have recovered from any side effects the cancer treatment might throw at me by then and hopefully know whether I had been cured or not.

Turning my attention to actually planning the walk, I estimated I could walk about 170 kms from Leon, finishing at Tricastela where I was confident I could get transport to connect with buses back to the UK. There was enough infrastructure to allow me to do only 6 - 10 kms per day, a distance I felt I would be able to achieve. Generating a spreadsheet with distances and stopping points - I was set.

Back to today ……. Yvonne texted to say she had arrived at the station. We did our shopping for a picnic on the train and an evening meal on the ferry, got a coffee and finally boarded the train. Arriving at Portsmouth harbour station we expected it to be fairly easy to reach the ferry terminal. We had both expected that a station called 'Portsmouth Harbour' would be within walking distance of the terminal. Not a bit of it. A chap at the station said there was a bus but we couldn't find it, nor could we find information at the online information point in the bus terminal. The information desk was closed so there was no-one to ask. In the end I searched online with my phone and came to the conclusion that we needed a taxi. The terminal was slightly over a mile away - too far to walk (and this is someone about to undertake a walking pilgrimage!) and there didn't seem to be any buses available. Anyway, we found a taxi; the driver was very friendly and deposited us at the terminal, charging less than he had estimated (I gave him a good tip).

We were able to check in immediately though boarding wasn't for over an hour yet. Time for a beer! Eventually we boarded, found our cabin, dumped our stuff and went out on deck to say goodbye to Portsmouth. Very soon after boarding we were off and couldn't resist a selfie! Returning to our cabin we settled down and had our evening meal, chatting about what lay ahead.

So here I am, about to set out on another journey into the unknown. I didn't manage to lose any weight, I have not done any exercise since early December and I have just found out that I have the start of osteoarthritis in my hip and knee. But hey, you're only young once.

And so to bed at about 23:30.

Ann Milner has been an active member of the Hitchin parish of Our Lady Immaculate and St Andrew in Westminster Diocese for nearly 20 years. As a member of the parish's very active One World/Livesimply group she has supported CAFOD in both fundraising projects such as the Virtual Village as well as taking part in campaigns such as last year's Walk for Water challenge.

I have a CAFOD fundraising page on justgiving. The link is: https://walk.cafod.org.uk/fundraising/camino4hunger