Ann McLeish crosses the finish line for RFDS

Ann McLeish completed her massive walk to Newdegate last Friday, travelling 222km in a bid to raise more than $12,500 for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

After starting her journey walking through Narrogin with students from Narrogin and East Narrogin primary schools, Ann was joined in Lake Grace by students from Lake Grace District High School.

She was accompanied to the finish line by Newdegate Primary School students.

“(They) were all waiting for me at the end with a big banner to walk under saying, ‘Welcome Mrs McLeish’, and they had made a big afternoon tea and had done all of their own fundraising for me too,” she said.

Ms McLeish said the community support was well beyond her expectations.

“In every town we would have people coming up to us on the street handing us hundred dollar donations, walking along with us and just being so generous and helpful,” she said. “The hills were hard, it was such a hilly route and walking on the bitumen was also really difficult, but I just kept thinking to myself this is really great, everyone is supporting you and you’ve just got to get this done and get out there and raise money for a great cause.”

She received daily calls from the RFDS to see how she was.

“We had hail, we had rain, we had wind blowing us the wrong direction, wind blowing us the right direction, but we got there, and the support was just amazing,” she said.

The money raised by the walk brings Ann’s running total to $206,000 for RFDS since 2008.