The long walk to fight COVID-19

Hamish Patel, former Business School student, is walking to raise money for citizens of Zambia affected by the Coronavirus pandemic.

A University of Brighton Business School graduate with cerebral palsy is helping COVID-19 victims by walking 270 miles – the equivalent of driving from Brighton to Liverpool – and he’s not finished yet.

Hamish Patel is raising money to help buy hospital equipment for a small town in Zambia which has scant resources to fight the pandemic.

He has relatives in the mining town of Kabwe where there are no intensive care beds. Severely ill patients have to travel three hours by car to a hospital in the capital Lusaka – if they can afford the trip.

Hamish is undertaking a sponsored walk in stages in the streets around his home in Seaford to raise funds to boost the local hospital’s target of £20,000 needed to buy ITU equipment so patients can be treated there.

He completed walking 293km on his 30th birthday in May and in doing so surpassed his original target of raising £2,000: “But as donations continued coming in I thought I’d carry on walking every day throughout June, and I’m now beyond 442km.

The Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Clinic, one of the projects supported by the Kabwe Hindu Association.

Hamish is appealing for more donations which will be managed through the registered charity, the Kabwe Hindu Association.

Hamish, awarded a BA(Hons) Business Management with Finance degree from the university in 2012 said his condition has helped him appreciate other people’s hardships.

He said: “My trips to Kabwe showed me the tremendous hardships many of the citizens go through in normal times. This is exacerbated a million-fold in the current coronavirus epidemic.

“I have had cerebral palsy since birth but am very fortunate that I am able to lead a normal life with medication and minor difficulties. This reminds me daily of the less fortunate and desperate human beings.”

To donate to Hamish’s charity drive, click here.