Why 24 people walked 100 miles from Falmouth to St Ives in five days

Strangers kept stopping them on the coast path. Some handed over a donation. Others wanted to talk about a friend or relative they had watched live with the same disease.

By the time the walkers reached St Ives Head, they had covered more than 100 miles of the South West Coast Path in five days and raised more than £15,000 for the MND Association.

A walk for Shannon, Sam and their children

The 100 Mile Hike was led by Taylor Money, a wealth management firm based in Falmouth. For the team it was personal.

They organised it in support of their colleague Shannon, her partner Sam, 32, and the couple’s two young children. Sam was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a form of Motor Neurone Disease (MND), in September 2025.

The MND Association’s Cornwall Branch has supported the family since the diagnosis, and the team wanted to give something back.

📷100 Mile Hike team photo on day two

Falmouth to St Ives Head in relay

The walk ran from Monday 21 to Friday 25 September. It started at the firm’s Falmouth office and took in the Lizard, St Michael’s Mount and Land’s End before finishing at St Ives Head, a distance equal to almost four marathons.

In total 24 people took part, walking in relay and taking on different sections across the five days. They included Taylor Money staff, family members and Sam’s colleagues from Pendennis Shipyard.

Many spent more than ten hours a day on the path, with steep climbs, sharp descents and some of the most demanding terrain on the Cornish coast.

The people they met along the way

The walk showed the team how many people in Cornwall have been affected by MND. Walkers were regularly stopped by people who shared stories of friends and family, offered donations or cheered them on.

Phil Feast, Director and Head of the Charity Committee at Taylor Money, said: “Despite this being such an awful disease, this challenge was honestly one of the most uplifting events I have been involved in. The weather played ball and we met so many lovely people along the route and almost all had been impacted by MND in some form or another.

“Just when things were getting tough, or legs were getting tired, we would come over a hill or round a corner to meet some people who wanted to donate, share their experience of MND, or simply give us some kind words of encouragement.”

A year-end target passed in just over a month

The team set out to raise £10,000 by the end of 2026. They passed that figure in just over a month.

Phil put that down to the generosity of the people they met on the walk, the firm’s clients and the wider community.

The money will go to the MND Association’s Cornwall Branch, which supports local people living with MND along with their families and carers. It will also help the branch reach more families across Cornwall.

MND is a progressive neurological condition that affects the brain and nerves. There is currently no cure.

The fundraising is still open

The walk is finished but the fundraising continues. Taylor Money has written more about the challenge in its account of The 100 Mile Hike, and donations can still be made through the Taylor Money JustGiving page.

📷100 Mile Hike team photo at the end of the hike