May performing her speech

Speeches

Dad and I finished the walk when we arrived on 25th October at the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club, where a reception was held for sponsors, friends and supporters. Mr David Sheepshanks, Chairman of The Suffolk Foundation, was among the first to welcome us on our arrival. At the reception he made a speech explaining that the £10,000 I raised would be doubled under the Government's grassroots challenge scheme. He also mentioned that if Dad had raised a similar endowment at my age it would now be worth around £600,000, as well as having funded grant-giving from the income in the meantime!

Judi Newman, the Suffolk Foundation's Development Director, described some of the local charities which support young people with disability in Suffolk and explained how the Foundation would support them with the help of my endowment.

I also had a few words to say. Here's the text of my speech.

May performing her speech

Hello everyone,

Today there are just three things I would like to say,

First of all, I want to say I am so grateful for you all for coming here to spend this time with me at the end of my walk.

Second, as you know I have been doing this in aid of The Suffolk Foundation to support young people with disabilities in Suffolk - especially to help them to get out and about.

That is because I've realized that many people like me who have the chance to do things like this haven't done it very often, and have spent too much time being lazy in front of the TV.

Yesterday I visited a girl of my age who has an illness in her bones and who is helped by a local charity to go swimming. I've seen that it's the people who find it more difficult to take part in activities who would most dearly love to do so. That is why I think it is important to help them.

Last of all I want to say thank you to everyone who has sponsored me, and helped me in all sorts of ways throughout my journey.

But most of all I want to say thank you to my amazing Dad for joining me on this trek and making it so much better.

When Dad made me do detours to see things he said were special, at first I thought it was really geeky and boring to do the extra distance. Looking back, I now realize that these were the best bits.

But I have to say that half way through I did get very annoyed with Dad taking so many pictures - so to help raise funds I decided to charge him £1 for every picture of me he put in the album!

So Dad, if ever we do something like this again, you really need to stop taking so many pictures and speed up!

Thank you!