The wife of a Croxley man who founded a Parkinson’s charity has travelled 200 miles along the Scottish coast in his memory, culminating in scattering his ashes.
Lyndsey Isaacs, her friend Heather Chiala and Lyndsey’s black Labrador Indi walked the long distance in memory of Tom Isaacs, who died last year from Parkinson’s disease, aged 49.
The 10-day walk, dubbed “4 Feet 4 Paws 4 Parkinson’s”, raised money for the Cure Parkinson’s Trust which Tom founded. Since 2005, Tom’s charity has raised over £7.5million for research into the disease, which affects over 10 million people worldwide.
Heather and Lyndsey began their walk on June 4, taking the Fife coastal trail from Leven, in the east-central Lowlands, to Dundee, on the North Sea shore.
In the single-road hamlets and old fishing villages that dotted their path, Lyndsey says she met others affected by the disease every day.
She said: “A stranger would say ‘oh my dad has it’. Otherwise it was through friends of friends, or through work.”
On the way from Wormit Bay to Newburgh, cattle stalked them through barbed wire and shoulder-length grass.
From Dundee they continued to Fraserburgh, its “enormous seals” fat on the scraps left by fishermen.
Then to Banff on the Banff Bay, across from the River Deveron. Here Indi the dog was injured, after scraping one of her pads. The four paws had to accompany the women by car.
Past Lossiemouth and other remote coastal towns, street signs were no longer there to point them in the right direction. But, finally they reached Findhorn, up the east coast from Inverness, what Lyndsey called “a bit of civilisation”.
On June 14, they made one last stop in Kearvaig Bay, at Scotland’s northernmost tip.
Lyndsey said: “Tom, years ago, had loved to walk there. Locals call the area around the bay, a rocky landscape with no trees, the last wilderness.”
The bay itself was secluded and quiet. Lyndsey followed the main track to the lighthouse.
She added: “That’s where I scattered Tom’s ashes.”
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