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After death of mum Woodford Green teacher walks length of 12 tube lines in 12 days - 350 miles - for charity
Alex Mills walked the length of 12 TfL lines in 12 days to raise money for Haven House Children's Hospice. Picture: Alex Mills - Credit: Archant
After the death of his mum, a Woodford County High School teacher walked the length of 12 Tube lines in 12 days - more than 350 miles - to raise money for Haven House Children’s Hospice.
Alex started going on long walks to clear his head after his mum, Margaret Mills, died after a long battle with cancer. Picture: Alex Mills - Credit: Archant
Alex Mills’ mum, Margaret Mills, who was an NHS nurse for more 45 years, had a long battle with cancer and did in April after a rapid decline.
While Alex, a teacher and amateur photographer, was processing her death he started going on long walks just to clear his head.
One day he walked all the way from his home in Woodford Green to Buckingham Palace and back.
After three long wanders he came up with a creative idea to do the walks and raise money at the same time.
The walks ranged from a few minutes (Waterloo and City) to more than 14 hours (Central Line). Picture: Alex Mills - Credit: Archant
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He set up a challenge to walk the length of 12 Underground lines over the course of 12 days in August. Alex would leave his house at dawn to get to the end of the line and then walk or run the entire way to the other end.
Some of the walks took as long as 14 hours and he created videos for each one.
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Alex, 40, told the Recorder: “Starting out walking through zone one was fun but it quickly became tedious.
“The area around UCL was difficult to keep walking by because that’s where my mum died.”
He carried around a GoPro8 and made videos of each walk. Picture: Alex Mills - Credit: Archant
He is a life-long Londoner and has lived all over the city and has previously travelled around a lot for his photography work.
The farthest tips of each line were the most interesting and unfamiliar to him and in some cases dangerous.
When he did the walk through the arduously long Central Line (51 miles), which he did with his partner, it took them more than 14 hours.
They ended at midnight and for the last three stops on the route they had to run through Epping Forest in darkness since there were no street lights.
Alex has raised almost �3,000 for the children's hospice. Picture: Haven House - Credit: Archant
“At that point we had been walking so long so we thought running that final stretch just might be the safest thing to do.
“I am lucky to be able to do this and help raise money for a great charity.”
To donate to Alex’s fundraiser visit https://gf.me/u/ym4h8y
Alex Mills’ walk/runs through 12 TfL lines:
1. Metropolitan
2. Northern Line
3. Bakerloo
4. Picadilly
5. Jubilee
6. District
7. Circle
8. Hammersmith and City
9. Victoria
10. Central
11. Waterloo and City
12. DLR
