We are wishing the best of luck to Sean McDade, who visited One Call Stadium last week on his ‘Trek Up Memory Lane,’ a walking charity challenge to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Society.
Sean, who turns 30 later this month, is walking from his home in London all the way up to Newcastle, where he grew up.
However, instead of walking straight up to his destination, he is visiting places where he has made ‘wonderful memories’ along the way.
His route is taking him from South East London, through the Midlands, the Peak District, Lancashire, the East Coast, the Yorkshire Moors, and eventually Newcastle upon Tyne.
Last Friday, he visited One Call Stadium in honour of Stags’ legend Kevin Bird, who now sadly suffers from dementia.
Kevin made over 440 appearances over an 11-year spell for the Stags and was well-known for his no-nonsense approach to defending and his threat at the other end from set pieces. Bird scored an exceptional 63 goals during his Mansfield career.
Sean attended Kevin’s charity match at One Call Stadium in 2017, staged to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Society and Once Upon a Smile, a family bereavement charity.
Kevin is the godfather of Lori Wheatman (pictured above, centrally with Sean), Sean’s best friend who he met at university.
Lori, who joined Sean for 22 miles of his charity challenge last week as he visited the Nottinghamshire area, says that her best friend is an ‘absolute inspiration.’
“We set off from Nottingham last Friday at around 9am, and managed to reach Mansfield at around 2.30pm,” she said.
“After visiting One Call Stadium, we began the walk to Sheffield – the torrential rain didn’t help!
“I managed to walk around 22 miles, but some of the boys did all 35.
“Sean is an absolute inspiration. I only did a day and my feet are still struggling, so to do what he does for this length of time is amazing.”
We are wishing Sean the best of luck with his 600-mile challenge, which he will look to conclude on his birthday, Monday 24 June.
To donate to Sean’s challenge, with all proceeds going to the Alzheimer’s Society, please click here.
