Cancer sufferer in Broads charity challenge
A pensioner who battled back from the brink of death after cancer surgery and a heart attack is preparing for a gruelling charity challenge in Norfolk.
Heleneia Brierley, 68, who was initially given just five months to live when she was diagnosed with bowel cancer seven years ago, is walking and canoeing the 65 mile Weavers’ Way from Cromer to Gt Yarmouth during September and October.
Heleneia, who has been inspired to travel the Weavers’ Way because her maiden name is Weaver, will begin her adventure by canoeing across Hickling Broad from the Pleasure Boat Inn, Hickling, to Potter Heigham on September 8 at 2pm. Heleneia hadn’t canoed until she started her training this year and until recently hated walking.
On September 24 at 10 am Heleneia will begin her challenging trek along the Weavers’ Way at Cromer, stopping at Wolterton Hall on September 26 for a reception hosted by Lord and Lady Walpole from 4-7pm. Norfolk rose growers, Peter and Amanda Beales, are donating a new salmon pink bloom called the Weavers’ Way Rose, which was selected by Heleneia, and will be presented to her at the reception.
Heleneia will be met at the end of her travels on October 18 at Gt Yarmouth station by the Mayor Terry Easter and driven the final half mile to the Town Hall for a Mayoral reception. Lord Nelson will be represented at both receptions to commemorate his birth in 1758.
Heleneia, who comes from Burnham on Crouch in Essex, will raise money for the Nancy Oldfield Trust which provides water-based activities on the Broads for people with disabilities at Neatishead, Mid Essex Hospital, and the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, which revived her after her heart attack. The Nancy Oldfield Trust will provide the canoe.
Heleneia’s Land and Water Disability Challenge is the latest in a series of heroic feats she has achieved since her illness to inspire other cancer sufferers and raise money for charity.
Heleneia walked 200 miles round her home county in 2002 and won the Achievement over Adversity category in the Essex Achievement Awards, nominated by her surgeon. She completed the Three Peaks Challenge four years ago, conquering Ben Nevis by night in 18 hours as well as Mount Snowdon and Scafell Pike.
Two years ago she climbed the 9,000 feet Mount Olympus in Greece in 35 hours and was honoured for her bravery and given a laurel wreath by the Greek Minister for Tourism. And last year she swam over a mile against the tide across the River Crouch in Essex after being in the water for two and a half hours.
Heleneia, who has undergone four operations including an irreversible colostomy and has suffered extensive chemotherapy and radiotherapy, said: "We conceived an idea that I could use my body and pitch it against nature. I felt an overwhelming desire to repay somehow those who had given me back my life against all the odds, and to bring some hope to people I had met along this journey of recovery."
Heleneia’s partner, Peter Pollard, who will be accompanying her, said that because of the fragile state of her health the furthest she could walk in one day would be seven miles, and the longest stretch would be her last, from the Berney Arms to Yarmouth station.
To sponsor Heleneia contact Mr Pollard on 01883-622502.
