The Walk of Life is a Walking Project to raise funds for Forces Online which is a cross-border veterans’ charity. Its primary purpose is to raise money as a sustainable funding option for the organisation to continue to help Armed Forces Veterans, their families, and dependents wherever we can.
The idea came about as Len (CEO/Founder) & Phil (Chair/Secretary) were talking about how other organisations raise money through activity-based projects. Different names were mentioned for the project and the University of Life was mentioned refraining to all walks of life, then just for a second a lightbulb moment flashed up and the Walk of Life dropped into the old grey matter and a new project was born.
We started to look for the contact details of Dire Straits as the Walk of Life music seemed the right way to go. After a few letters, one which went all the way to Canada, a few months later we got a reply from the management company in London who asked about the project. Another month went past our ideas were accepted and the video made. This was of course done in house by our Founder. The Walk of Life is featured on the Brothers In Arms album.
Further chats between the members group, which is made of the Trustees and Officials took place to determine some of the details relating to the Walk of Life for the promotional video which features the sacrifices made by our WWII veterans in storming the Normandy beaches. Forces Online is committed to all veterans, so it is fitting that the Walk of Life has participation from a very wide audience and serves to remind the population of the selfless commitment the armed forces have paid to keep us all safe in our beds at night. Many of us all have family history relating to family members who lost their lives or survived. The survivors of campaigns and wars still carry physical and mental scars, often needing support from charities like ours.
Forces Online has been helping Veterans since way back in 2013. In February 2016 when we first registered as CIC provisions were put in place to ensure we helped them across the whole of the United Kingdom. This was followed up when the organisation converted to Forces Online CIO in April 2020, and Forces Online Scotland was formed the following January, and we became a cross-border charity. The Walk of Life will allow us to help more veterans.
