Meet the Notts County mega fan walking from Nottingham to Maidstone
Notts County megafan, John Tennyson is undertaking a massive walk in order to raise money and honour the memory of his father
Starting in Nottingham on Monday and ending in Maidstone on the Saturday Notts County play in Kent, Magpies fan John Tennyson will walk 160 miles in total to raise money for cancer research.
The walk will take place in memory of John’s Dad Darryll, who unfortunately passed away from stomach cancer last May. All funds from the walk will go towards cancer research. Going with his Dad regularly home and away as a Magpies fan, John has fond memories of his childhood watching County at Meadow Lane.
He said: “My Dad took me to my first game when I was five and that was in the old Kop that used to have the old scoreboard at the back of the stand.
My first memory of that was, they used to have these old barriers. I remember my Dad telling me to stop swinging on the barriers and watch the game.”
The idea to embark on this crazy charity walk came about when Mr Tennyson was sitting in a local bar, looking at the run-in Notts County had towards the end of the season.
Maidstone away was then quickly decided as it could’ve been an away game he and his Dad had gone to, sparking this attempt to walk down to Kent in his memory.
He said: “I was just thinking, me and my Dad might have had the chance to go to that game.
“I thought, ‘Ooh, Maidstone’ - I know what I’ll do, I’ll walk there! It literally just popped into my head and then I shouted out ‘I’m going to walk to Maidstone,’ and then that was it.”
The County fan has been training ever since, helped by his friend who regularly mountain climbs. He’s been walking around his local neighbourhood in Long Eaton too in preparation, venturing down to his local pub on foot rather than by taxi.
Support for John’s walk has seen a whole host of people from the football community and beyond reach out to offer support, with Sky Sports pundit Jeff Stelling even tweeting about John’s efforts to walk to Maidstone.
He’s even had a pair of custom Adidas trainers made, a pair similar to the ones he’d always wear going along with his Dad.
When he gets down to Maidstone to watch his beloved Magpies, he’ll switch into that pair. The home side on the day in Kent has even arranged for John to go on the pitch at half-time, the extended football family fully behind his cause.
Although John himself has even admitted it is a ‘long way’ to get down to Kent for that Saturday kick-off, arriving at the Gallagher Stadium to finish the trek and then hopefully seeing Notts County win is what’s spurring him on.
He said: “Friday is a bit of a problem day because it’s the longest day of the walk. I’ve done it the wrong way around.
But on the last day (Saturday), the adrenaline will kick in. I know my wife is going to be there, friends that are going to be there. I’m meeting up with lots of Notts fans on Saturday in the local bar, they want to walk me to the ground. The last day’s push, that’s what’s going to spur me on.”
If you’d like to donate to John’s daring charity walk down to Maidstone, visit the website here.