Hail yea! Darlo Lads Walk and Talk 2025.
An amazing challenge in the most challenging conditions imaginable. 62 men battling Storm Bert to walk from Langdon Beck to Darlington to raise nearly £18000 to support our work.
On the early morning 01:00 of Saturday 23 November 62 men set out from Langdon Beck high up in the Tees Valley to walk to Darlington 38 miles downriver to raise awareness of male suicide and raise funds for ManHealth. The forecast was for Storm Bert to hit us by 5am and boy did Bert hit us hard. 
I have never seen snow like it and by 8am as we approached Barnard Castle there was over a foot of snow with blizzard conditions. At this point with still over 18 miles to go many of the men had to abandon due to the extreme cold. Well over half of the men set off to complete the final miles. As the morning wore on the heavy snow changed to heavy rain and all the snow melted leaving everywhere sodden and we were now all completely soaked and freezing. Storm Bert was doing his utmost to make us abandon the challenge. We very buoyed by the words of the organiser Joe Crees who said to us all, "This storm is nothing in comparison to the storm a man is going through when he is considering taking his own life". With that quote emboldening us and the continuous support of our two men in the support vehicle Paul Wilson and Chris Underwood we continued onwards on our odyssey to Darlington. The walk was completed in the dark at about 4:30pm. Kudos to all those who took part and huge congratulations to those hardy souls who completed the whole distance in what was the most arduous and challenging event I have ever undertaken. Paul Bannister
