Canal memorial walk in Burnley will help less fortunate around the world

Twelve parishioners from The Good Samartian, a newly formed parish made up from the three Catholic churches of St Mary’s, St John the Baptist’s and Christ-the-King in Burnley, walked 4.5 milles from Barden Lane to Junction 12 of the M65 in Brierfield along the canal towpath and returned via the same route.

For over 35 years, the three churches of East Burnley have generously supported the work of CAFOD in the developing world. St John’s has had a CAFOD group who have met regularly over all those years, and as time has passed many group members and supporters have passed away.

Therefore, the group members decided to mark the passing of all these people by having a “Memorial Sponsored Walk”. Parishioners were asked if they would like to make a donation towards CAFOD’s work in memory of a family member or friend who had been involved in or supported its work.

They were to able add the names of their deceased family or friends to a memorial list or place the names within the donation envelope. All these names of loved ones were remembered at various points along the route.

During the walk, around 60 individual and four family names were read out and prayers offered up for them. It was decided that the money raised would be spent on the following items from CAFOD’s World Gifts catalogue/project: 10 trees for life; 11 queen bees; two batches of chickens; two life-saving goats; 10 supplies of water for a family; two vegetable gardens; two batches of worms and 10 mosquito nets. All these wonderful ethical gifts added up to the £660 raised by the walk.

Anne Marie Coppock, a founding member of the parish CAFOD group, said: “On behalf of the entire CAFOD group I just wish to thank everyone for their amazing generosity.

"The money raised has bought all these fantastic gifts for individual families, which will help to ensure they are able to feed themselves, have a better quality of life and be able to earn a small income.

"CAFOD’s work is about helping people to lift themselves out of poverty by their own efforts and with our support. All these “gifts” are sourced locally and are fit for purpose and local conditions.

"They will be allocated to those in greatest need with the support of CAFOD partners on the ground, across Latin America, Africa or Asia, often through the Caritas International Network, of which CAFOD is a member.”