Paris or bust for two Skegness bar staff raising funds for charity

Two members of the bar staff at a Skegness pub are going the extra mile… by walking all the way to Paris for charity.

Will Sismey and Dionne Shore set off from The Lumley, where they work, to the French capital on Saturday (February 1).

They are taking on the mammoth challenge to raise funds for the Derbyshire Children’s Holiday Centre Comeback Appeal (see page 3) as well as the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboats Institution).

It couldn’t have come at a better time for the centre, which has been providing free seaside holidays to Derbyshire children in need since 1891 but sadly has been forced to launch its own appeal and call a pause on the seaside breaks this year due to lack of funds.

William, 28, whose mum Sally runs The Lumley and originally hails from Derby, volunteered to take on the 450-mile walk last year but delayed it when Dionne said she would like to go along too.

It’s estimated it will take them around four weeks to complete and Dionne has been busy getting sponsorship to stay at hotels and B&Bs along the way.

Will said: “I’ve never done anything like this before. But I’ve seen people online who have taken on challenges like this and I thought I’d like to do something similar.

"I really wanted to challenge myself to walk to another country and do it for charity."

Dionne said “I’ve been coming to Skegness all my life, for 47 years, and I’ve worked with children myself. The charity has been there for more than 130 years.

"We need to do this walk and raise as much money as we can for these disadvantaged children.”

Dionne and William have been being put through their paces at the Giffgaff gym near where they work, which has offered its services free of charge to help them prepare for their epic walk.

Alan Grimadell, chair of Derbyshire Children’s Holiday Centre, said: “Dionne and William are doing a brilliant thing in undertaking this huge long walk all the way to Paris for our Comeback Appeal. It really is what you’d call going the extra mile. We are enormously grateful to them for their incredible efforts.”

Follow their journey on The Lumley Facebook page. To make a donation, visit www.justgiving.com and search ‘William's fundraiser for Derbyshire Children's Holiday Centre’.

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