UPDATE: |’I’m walking 1,200 miles from Manchester to Ibiza in my flip-flops’ News

Henry Moores is raising money for a children’s cancer charity

A young man from Macclesfield is walking all the way to Ibiza for the second year running – with nothing but a pair of flip flops between him and nearly 1,200 miles of walking.

Henry Moores, 22, is no stranger to walking incredible distances. He did his first major walk from Manchester to Paris in October 2023 and raised over £19,000 for charity in the process.

His walk to Ibiza last summer was aided by Wayne Lineker and raised a whopping £127k for the Tony Hudgell Foundation, a charity supporting children affected by child abuse.

He then walked from London to Berlin for the Euros final, and ran from the UAE to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia for the Fury vs Usyk fight in December.

This year, he’s set his sights on the Balearic Islands, but with a twist on last year’s challenge. “I thought, what can I wear to make myself struggle?” he told the M.E.N.

“I thought, if I can put myself through a bit of pain, people will be more generous.

“I had such a good time last year and wanted to do it again, but to keep everyone entertained I thought there had to be a different catalyst, and that was footwear.

“Making it harder gets more attention and that gets more donations for a great charity.”

Anyone wishing to donate to the campaign can do so here.

Henry said he decided to start his first challenge after an apprenticeship he was due to start in 2023 “went a bit awry”.

“I said to my mum, ‘I’m going to Paris’. I’ve always wanted to do a big walk and have always joked about it,” he said.

“I came back from that and raised around £20,000 for local charities and by then I’d really got the bug for it. I thought, what next?

“Let’s walk to Spain. I texted Wayne Lineker and he got involved, boom. I walked there, came back, and I’ve done a few more things since.”

Ever since his first walk to Paris, Henry has documented the entire process on his Instagram account, where he has amassed more than 370,000 followers. Beginning this year’s walk to Ibiza on April 5, by yesterday evening (April 17) he had reached Reading, staying in hotels and B&Bs at night, and walking 165 miles in twelve days.

“The good weather has carried me through,” said Henry. “It’s been amazing – and the walk has surprisingly not been as bad as I thought.

“The first few days took a lot of adapting – I got bad blisters on the first day and realised I needed to take action so I got some blister socks and blister plasters.

“The only problem has been at night, with aches and pains in my legs. It’s been quite unpleasant in the mornings.”

This year’s walk is supporting Be More Fab, a cancer charity supporting children, families and schools affected by cancer. Henry expects the walk to take around 80 days and has so far raised nearly £8,000.

Since starting the walk, Henry has had to battle the elements and ward off a cold as well – but has been buoyed by members of the public accompanying him for stretches of the walk, and the kindness of strangers gifting him free drinks and meals.

“It’s not about the destination for me, or making it to the end,” he said. “It’s the people I’ve met along the way and their generosity. The hardship is character-building.

“There’s a load of things that make it really special for me. It’s not about the end goal, it’s the journey and the person it makes you.”

“The reaction from people has been ‘you’re crazy, you’re going to damage your feet, you won’t be able to walk afterwards, you’ll be in a wheelchair’. I’ve had some negative comments but hundreds and hundreds of positive comments with people spurring me on.

“That’s what got me through these first ten days, the positivity. We’ve had people donating and messaging and sharing stuff – it wouldn’t be possible without them.

“I’m not raising this money, its been raised by the community of people who watch my videos, and I’m really grateful for that.”

Anyone wishing to donate to the campaign can do so here.