Cancer patient traveled 300 miles using £2 bus tickets

A Wiltshire cancer patient has traveled more than 300 miles (482 km) across England to raise awareness for charity using £2 bus fares.

Kate Walter, who has stage four lung cancer, traveled from her home in Wootton Bassett to Hadrian’s Wall before ending up in Yorkshire.

Despite her health being “up and down”, Mrs Walter undertook a huge walk to raise awareness for Macmillan Cancer Support – the charity which helped her when she was “absolutely destitute”.

“They literally gave me back my dignity,” she said.

It’s been a tough year for Mrs. Walter. After she was diagnosed with cancer, her fiance “abandoned” her in Australia.

She said that when she returned to the UK she weighed less than 10 pounds.

“I was crying bitter tears over an empty tube of toothpaste,” she recalled.

“The thought at my age of having to ask my brother for toothpaste almost killed me.

“Macmillan has been absolutely amazing – from the phone insurance, from the advisers, from the advisers.

“What many people don’t know is that they are able to send people who are struggling financially with a cancer diagnosis a funding cheque.”

After accessing an old pension fund, he started looking for a job. While online, she saw an advert about the government’s £2 bus cap scheme which applies to single journey tickets at any time of the day until December.

“I said ‘oh my gosh’ you can get from Swindon to Oxford on £2 or you can go all the way to Cheltenham.

“I thought then, ‘if you can go to Cheltenham for £2, where else can you go from Cheltenham?’

“This little idea started to form – I wanted to give back to Macmillan for everything they had done for me.

“They make such a difference with cancer patients. Nurses come to your house – one day I’m going to need that.”

Ms Walter said she was taking “each day as it comes” with her lung cancer.

“With this disease, life is divided into six weeks of treatment, scans and blood tests.

“A lot of people are spinning their wheels and again that’s where Macmillan comes in with the advice.”

Describing her cross-country bus trips, she said: “It was incredible.”

“There have been so many amazing stories”, from people she has met along the way whose families have been helped by Macmillan Cancer Support.

Mrs Walter added: “All we have is today – so you just have to go out there and live for today.”