Brain disease sufferers to take part in Walk For All

Among the thousands expected to take part in the major new Yorkshire Dales charity event – being endorsed by the family of Jane Tomlinson in her memory – will be a group of 10 people from the Wakefield charity Second Chance, the only one of its kind in Yorkshire which supports people with acquired brain disease.

Judith Evans, development and marketing manager at the charity which has been based in Yorkshire for the past 32 years helping hundreds of sufferers of brain disease aged between 18 and 60, will be walking the 4.5 mile wheelchair friendly route around Malham Tarn alongside members who want to raise money for the centre.

Speaking on behalf of one woman, Bev Jackson, a 37-year-old mortgage advisor who was partly paralysed and lost the ability to talk, read and write in a horrific car crash 12 years ago, she said: “Bev cannot remember anything about the crash, it happens with a lot of people we see with trauma.

“She has been with us for nine years, she is doing very well but still has a long journey to come.”

On the day, Mrs Jackson, who is from Mirfield, will be taking part in a wheelchair alongside her husbands Steve.

Another member of the group will be Lee Baxendale, 42, of Wakefield, an ex-trucker who lost the ability to read and write after being viciously beaten in an attack in the city centre three years ago.

Mrs Evans said: “It has changed his life.”