At 80, UK Sikh to walk from Kanyakumari to Delhi for charity
Monday, 05/10/2015
http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
LONDON: An 80-year-old NRI Sikh philanthropist in the UK will undertake a 4,160-km long walk from Kanyakumari (Tamil Nadu) to New Delhi in six months to raise 1.5 million pounds (around `14 crore) for various charities.
Balwant Grewal, chairman of the India Association, will commence his marathon walk from Kanyakumari on October 25 and finish in New Delhi on April 4 next year.
The London-based NRI, known to his friends as Bobby, would cover Madurai, Puducherry, Chennai, Nellore, Guntur, Vishakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Asansol, Ranchi, Gaya, Patna, Varanasi, Allahabad, Kanpur, Lucknow and Noida.
During the charity walk, a four-day mobile cancer screening camp will be held in Patna from February 26 and one in Delhi in April, where about 400 to 500 patients will be screened every day, joint secretary of the India Association Rajan Bhanot told PTI. The funds he would raise would go to Great Ormond Street Hospital, Children’s Charity and the British Asian Trust in the UK and deserving causes in India.
Bobby had earlier walked from Amritsar to Kanyakumari and Edinburgh to London to raise funds for charitable causes and cancer research in UK and India.
The forthcoming walk will be a challenging one due to Bobby’s age (he will be celebrating his 81st birthday during the walk), the extreme heat and the tough terrain. Bobby will be accompanied by a support vehicle and a team of four, his walk project director Bhanot, a driver, a chef and a physiotherapist who will ensure that he remains in good health during the marathon.
