It was way back in 2003 that a group of Stamford ramblers decided to walk the Macmillan way, which at that time stretched from Boston, through Stamford to Abbotsbury on the Dorset coast. 
We had previously walked the Jurassic Way, which begins in Stamford and had enjoyed it so much that we decided that we would like to do another long distance walk which starts locally, and to see how far we could get.
Between February and September of that year we completed 8 stages over a distance of 85.8 miles, walking through some of the picturesque limestone countryside between Stamford and Epwell near Banbury in Oxfordshire.  We had used the usual linear walk car sharing scheme which some of you will be familiar with, walking on alternative Sundays to our regular Sunday walks.  The most taxing part of this method seemed to be deciding which car we were leaving our shoes in!  By September we were leaving Stamford at 07:15 to get to our starting point in time to begin walking at 10:00, so we decided to call it a day for that year and continued in 2004.  That year we decided that driving mileages were getting ridiculous, so decided to complete the final 2 stages to Stow on the Wold from Epwell, over a weekend.  We all booked our accommodation for the weekend April 17th/18th, staying at B&B's near Stow.
I had planned a celebration cake for the end of the walk at Long Compton, where we had left half the cars before starting the stage from there to Stow.  Unfortunately, this was the worst stage regarding weather, and my picture of us all sitting together on a nice grassy verge celebrating, came to nothing, it was pouring down, and I got thoroughly wet passing slices of cake through barely opened car windows as everyone took shelter in their cars.

Fran and Anne at the start and finish of the Macmillan Way walk.
2005 passed us by for some reason, then Anne Addison and I decided that we would like to complete the whole lot, so put word out to the others who had walked with us so far.  We planned to do 4 more stages, from Stow to Castle Combe, over a long weekend.  As it happened no-one else could join us that weekend, so with Phil as back-up driver, we set off on June 8th 2006 to walk the 50 miles to Castle Combe in 4 stages, which we did quite easily, in scorching hot weather.
We then realised that we ought to do the Boston to Stamford stage if we were to complete the whole "coast-to-coast" so this was organised by Anne for February to April in 2007.  Several of the original group were able to join us this time and we had delightful weather over terrain which could have been dreadful in bad weather.
We were then left with the final 94 miles to take us to the sea at Abbotsbury.  Due to the long distance between Stamford and Abbotsbury, Anne and I decided that we would complete this during a week's holiday, so everything was booked for 9th -16th June 2008.  Phil again acted as back-up driver and we finally arrived in Abbotsbury in the early afternoon of June 16th.  We had had no rain for the whole of the week, which must have been a record for this summer, and felt very satisfied as we sat on Chesil Beach after dipping our toes in the sea, having covered the whole of the 290 miles.  We had donated money at the rate of 10p per mile covered, to the Macmillan Way Association so felt that we had done something worthwhile, as well as getting so much enjoyment ourselves, out of the walk. Fran Jacklin