59-year-old embarked on 1,000km journey to raise money for children
A 1,000-kilometre walk may seem daunting, but not for James Lee Valentine. He is living proof that having a sense of charity and resolve and experience can make a great difference to people’s lives.
Mr Valentine, 59, is no stranger to long-distance walks for charity. His latest feat, also the longest he has undertaken so far, was a special marathon journey from Pattaya to Phuket, two resort cities closest to his heart.
Feeling fired up to raise 1 million baht for Take Care Kids, a children’s foundation based in Pattaya, the British expat put his stamina to a major test.
The walk from Pattaya on the eastern seaboard and then to Phuket, the island province in the Andaman Sea in the west, covered 1,050km. The 48-day walk was concluded on June 6.
The journey was preceded by another charity walk earlier this year, from Pattaya to Jomtien Beach, a very much shorter distance along a stretched-out route covering about 33km. It took place on Feb 14 to mark Valentine’s Day and reflect his surname.
Instead of celebrating Valentine’s Day by candlelight, he chose to do something for underprivileged children under the foundation’s care.
A visit to the foundation prior to the charity walks opened his eyes to the desperate situation faced by children at the hands of abusive families. Many had suffered abuse before being resettled in a safe environment.
Himself a father of two, Mr Valentine said he left the foundation that day distraught but was determined to do something to help the children.
Mr Valentine raised 71,000 baht from the Pattaya-Jomtien walk, which he gave to Take Care Kids.
Accompanying him on the walks were members of the Hash House Harriers, a group of social runners with chapters throughout Thailand, mainly Bangkok, Pattaya and Phuket. The Hash House Harriers regard themselves as a charity group.
Mr Valentine was first introduced to Take Care Kids in early January during one of the foundation’s fundraising activities in Pattaya and became interested in contributing to its cause.
After the Pattaya-Jomtien charity walk, Mr Valentine said he knew more money would be needed to build a new foster home for the foundation.
After the 33km walk, he said: “I felt really good. And I visited their [the foundation’s] existing foster home, met the children there, and thought I should go do a big walk.”
With this in mind, he set off on the journey from Pattaya to Phuket, for which he received 200,000 baht in donations.
Mr Valentine, who is now back in Pattaya, where he currently lives, decided to walk to Phuket due to what he said is a personal attachment to places beginning with the letter “P”. Before coming to Pattaya, he spent 24 years in the Philippines and 10 years in Phuket, where the Hash House Harriers have their biggest chapter.
“I was thinking if I really enjoyed the walk, I might walk to Penang [Malaysia] only because it begins with a P,” he said.
During his walk from Pattaya to Phuket, Mr Valentine travelled along Sukhumvit Road, Rama II and Phetkasem Road, the main route heading South.
For most of the trip, the roads were not pedestrian-friendly. As well as narrow and uneven paths, he endured intense heat and physical pain.
“I probably had five motorbikes in 40 days of walking that came too close to me because I could feel them pretty much brush my cape,” he said.
On May 1, on day 12 of his journey, he passed Hua Hin district in Prachap Khiri Khan and wrote on the Take Care Kids Facebook page that he was diagnosed with sciatica, a common condition affecting the sciatic nerve, which extends from the lower back to the back of each leg.
He decided to listen to his body and take two days of rest before telling himself the pain would not hold him up or abort his mission for Take Care Kids.
Miraculously, the pain from the sciatica went away as he soldiered on after the rest. It hasn’t given him any problems since.
Mr Valentine said that, unlike Bangkok, convenience stores and pharmacies in the provinces are few and far between. He sometimes had to walk 50km between each one.
People also offered him a lift, but he politely declined.
Mr Valentine is no stranger to walking long distances. His first charity walk was back in the United Kingdom alongside his older brother in 1996.