Costa del Sol's most active fundraisers: 'Doing good for other people is the best feeling in the world'

Mijas residents Alan and Jenny Boardman are to walk the final 120km of the Camino de Santiago to raise "vital" funds for Cudeca

Tony Bryant

Mijas

Thursday, 17 April 2025, 14:59

The Costa's most active fundraisers, Alan and Jenny Boardman, have announced their latest campaign, an ambitious project to raise funds for Cudeca. The kind-hearted residents of Mijas, who run regular walking tours of the village for charity, have announced they will walk the final 120 kilometres of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela to raise "vital" funds for the hospice. SUR in English caught up with Alan to chat about his June expedition along the old pilgrimage route in northern Spain, and what gives him his unrelenting drive to continue helping others.

Have you ever walked the camino before?

No. We love walking, but we have not taken on anything of this scale before.

Are you in special training for this?

Yes, we have a programme mapped out with different distances and topography. We have been walking around 15km each session to get ready for this, although we know it's not going to be easy.

Are you confident of completing the task?

We have asked ourselves that question and this is why the training is so necessary. If we cannot do a 15km walk every three to four days, we will never complete our walk in seven days straight. We are pretty fit for our age, so I guess we are pretty confident.

How is the training so far?

It's been tiring for sure, but we've not had blisters or joint pain. Jenny is used to the gym and boot camps, so she has been the driving force.

Why have you chosen to do this?

Partly because a friend of ours received such wonderful care from Cudeca in her final days earlier this year. We have done work for Cudeca before and we have experienced, thankfully not first hand, the excellent work they do.

When will you begin the walk?

We are starting in a town called Sarria, in Galicia, on 4 June and we plan to walk an average of 17 kilometres per day, ending in Santiago de Compostela on 10 June.

Do you ever get tired of fundraising?

The answer to this question is simple: no. Doing good for other people is the best feeling in the world. But the real heroes, not that we consider ourselves heroes, are the people who muck out horses, look after the elderly or attend to dying people.

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