Coventry man raises £26,000 for classrooms in Zambia

Canon Gavin Kibble MBE has completed a 13-day coast-to-coast journey

A Coventry charity worker has completed a 200-mile walk across England to raise more than £26,000 to build classrooms for orphans in Zambia.

Canon Gavin Kibble MBE is Project Director of Feed the Hungry and founder of Coventry Foodbank.

Gavin said: “We have a feeding program for children in a school which is specifically for children orphaned by the AIDS pandemic which has hit Zambia very hard.

“They wrote and said that the number of children in the school has reached 400, but they only have 200 places.

“The opportunity will be life-changing for them and their community, and because they will stay in school, which will help the economy.”

The 200-mile route between St Bees Head in Lancashire and Robin Hood’s Bay in Yorkshire would be a challenge for most people, but it was an even greater achievement for Gavin, 60, who had a heart attack two years ago.

He said: “There’s a celebration in not being limited for life to the problems I used to have because I had angina, so it used to be difficult to walk 200 feet, let alone 200 miles.”

Despite raising more than £26,000, Gavin is still looking to raise more money to equip the school with an IT facility – something he says will require around £4,000 more, helped by a partner who matches every donation made.

For more details and to donate, you can visit the Feed the Hungry website.

First and foremost, for all the latest news from across the UK every hour on Hits Radio on DAB, at hitsradio.co.uk and on the Hits Radio app.