The Banbury United FC team has completed week 1 of Katharine House Hospice’s ‘Pace Around the World’, which challenges participants to collectively cover more than 40,000 miles in 30 days – the equivalent of circumnavigating the globe. The virtual route passes through more than 30 countries, starting and finishing at Katharine House Hospice in Adderbury.

Every mile we log – which can be walking, running, cycling, swimming, wheeling, even gardening – counts towards the shared total.

Banbury United has completed 406.5 kms in 7 days, averaging an impressive 58.1 km per person in the first week. Pace Around the World’s 106 participants (13 teams) overall have moved 9,075,370 km at the time of writing: that’s taken us as far as Tehran in our globe-wide trek.

Almost a quarter of the way in, team Banbury United FC sits in 6th place (a familiar mid-table position one might say!) in both the overall and average distance achieved leaderboards.

Our seven team members are: Steve Davies, Lisa Dixon, Claire Dumbreck, Roger Gollicker, Ronnie Johnson, Martin Jopp and Holly Poncini. With some teams having over 20 members, rest days are not an option for our group!

While we are doing well on the exercise front, we still have most work to do on the fundraising side. We need to raise a minimum £50 per person as part of the challenge as a start. Our motivation behind the challenge was to put something back into our local hospice, who provided exemplary end of life care for Simon for many months, and who care for so many in our community.

If you are able, please consider making a donation to our Just Giving page: https://www.justgiving.com/page/banburyunitedfc.

We are organising an easy pace walk from The Spencer Stadium this coming Saturday June 13th - open to all - just arrive to the car park at 9.45am.

Main photo caption: Five our team walked around Banbury together on Saturday morning, joined by Janey H Fit, from team Bloxham Mill. Left to right: Steve, Jane, Claire, Lisa, Holly and Ronnie.

Here are some photos from week 1: