Even after nine decades, nothing stops Walk1000Miles legend Pamela Wright Brogan. We joined the Birthday Girl to find out what keeps her moving – and how you can follow in her footsteps.
If you ever need proof that walking works wonders – and that Walk1000Miles is the greatest walking challenge on earth – look no further than Pamela Wright Brogan.
Pam has been an avid walker all her life, and she first signed up for the Walk1000Miles ten years ago – at the age of 80 – as a way of giving herself added motivation in the face of a series of health difficulties.
She has never looked back. From creating her own long-distance routes in her 60s to climbing Ben Nevis at 80; from rock-climbing to wing-walking: nothing has ever stopped Pam from looking to the horizon. And she’s still active in the Walk1000Miles community (in fact in some quarters they call her the Queen).
To mark Pamela’s 90th birthday, a group of her Walk1000Miles pals decided to meet up in her beloved Cotswold hills for a celebration and a short walk with the lady herself, and Country Walking editor Nick Hallissey popped along too.
Here’s the story behind Pam’s legend – and some top tips for keeping moving for as long as she has...
Age really is just a number
“I remember when I was very young that all the women on my mother’s side used to die at 89 and I always thought, ‘well, that’s seriously old; I’d be happy if I lived to 89’,” laughs Pamela.
“But here I am at 90 and I think it’s no age at all. Just a number. I still want to do this, that and the other. It’s just a matter of working out how!”
Her attitude is all the more remarkable given what Pamela is up against: ME, diabetes, asthma; osteoarthritis in hips, pelvis and thigh bones; 90 years of wear and tear in back, shoulders and knees. These days she uses an all-terrain walker and takes a lot more pauses, but the desire and the tenacity are still there – and so is the smile.
“I have all those problems but I don’t let them define me,” she insists.
“I can’t go so fast and there are some things I can’t do anymore; I’ve had to give up the garden. But walking, slow and steady: that I can do! You just have to make adjustments. Find a way around your problems.”
Pam admits it’s not always easy to get motivated to go out, especially living by herself. But, she adds, the trick is simply to remember how she feels after a walk.
“Sometimes I sit at home and I feel a bit miserable. I don’t want to do anything, I feel lonely,” she says. “But then I just say, ‘Pam, go for a walk. Go on, stop feeling sorry for yourself and get up and go.’
“And once I’m out, it’s just brilliant. I’m out in the fresh air, looking at the views, seeing life all around me.
“There isn’t a day when I regret getting up and going out.”
A lifelong adventure
Pam says she can’t remember a time when she didn’t go walking. In childhood, walking from A to B was simply part of life, but Pam’s mother also took her for long walks into the Cotswold countryside, as far as they could go, before getting a bus back.
Pam’s adventurous spirit set in early; she recalls climbing ‘trees, high walls and even billboards’ on solo journeys around town and into the hills.
“Once my own children came along, and I became a single mum to five, I would take them to the local hills to play hide and seek and climb trees,” she recalls.
“In their teens they weren’t interested in long walks so when I took them camping I would have to take myself off on short walks or think up ways to jolly them up for some exploring.”
When the children left home, Pamela taught herself to use a map and compass and took herself away on long walks in the South Downs and over Dartmoor. She eventually began taking walking holidays overseas.
At 61 she invented her own long-distance trail, walking 130 miles from the Thames Barrier to the Malvern Hills. She has since walked the Cotswold Way, the Saints Way, the Gloucestershire Way and the Six Dales Way, as well as big chunks of the Thames Path and the South West Coast Path.
And she climbed Ben Nevis at 80. In the rain.
“People said I shouldn’t or couldn’t but I did,” she beams. “It just shows what you can do if you’re a bit determined.”
The Dancing Badgers
As we head out for a short walk around the beautiful acres of Crickley Hill (with Pam leading the way, obviously), it’s easy to see why she became an inspirational figure in the Walk1000Miles community. As Denise Reynolds says: “There is nobody quite like her.”
She was first dubbed ‘the Queen’ by fellow Walk1000Miler Peter Partington, which led former Country Walking editor Guy Procter to invite Pam to give ‘The Queen’s Speech’ one Christmas.
“That was so funny,” she giggles. “I got a friend to hold up my speech while I sat in the garden reading it to the camera. I remember wearing a nice bonnet which I thought made me a bit more like the Queen.”
(Pam says this as we pause at the brow of a hill, leading someone to suggest she’s gone up in the world and is now doing the Sermon on the Mount.)
Although some members of the Class of ’16 have never met in person before, several have come together over the years for ‘Badger Meets’ and ‘Badger Fest’ (named in honour of the Walk1000Miles badge, of course – get yours here.
This prompts a truly glorious moment when Pam and three fellow Badgers pause in the woods to perform ‘The Badger Dance’, inspired by the famous animated meme of bouncing badgers.
“Badger Badger Badger Badger MUSHROOM! MUSHROOM!”
It’s a scene I will never, ever forget.
Advice from a legend
So does Pamela have any advice for anyone just setting out with an interest in walking? You bet she does.
“Oh, do it. Just go for it, you’ll love it,” she says.
“Start with a little local walk and see what’s on your doorstep, and soon you’ll want to see more.
“I actually feel a bit jealous of you, with all those adventures ahead of you. Don’t waste a minute. Just get some good shoes and a comfy rucksack, and don’t listen to the voices in your head that tell you not to bother.
“If you look for the bad things, you’ll always find them.
“But if you look for the good things, you will find them, too.”
