Dad's blisters to raise money in daughter's memory
FamilyA father suffered battered feet, blisters and sleeplessness to raise more than £7,000 on a six-day charity trek in memory of his teenage daughter.
Santino and some of his friends walked 124 miles from London to his Staffordshire home raising money for charities including Cardiac Risk in the Young. They also slept in tents to raise awareness of homelessness.
His daughter, Maria, 17, died when she had a cardiac arrest in 2021.
Crossing the finish line on what would have been Maria's 21st birthday, filled his heart with "gratitude, emotions and love," he said.
Maria, who had autism and dyspraxia, had been walking home from a work placement at a school near her home when she died.
Santino, who lives with his wife Michelle and their three children in Codsall, near Wolverhampton, said memories of his daughter motivated him to push through ice cold conditions.
"My feet are battered, swollen, I have blisters everywhere and my skin has ripped off them but I wanted to prove to her that she was my child.
"She will always be in our hearts," he said.
Michelle said she was massively proud of her husband.
"All the lads that joined him I can't thank them enough or all the superhero's who have donated, absolute legends."
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