FOLLOWING THE COMPLETION of her challenge to walk the entire Leeds & Liverpool canal in 2023.
A yoga teacher and reflexologist from Chorley is thrilled to release her first book, which follows her physical journey across the North of England, and the mental journey that inspires her philosophies on life.
When Felicity Pryke, 47, knew she was taking on a challenge that could raise money for a great cause, she turned to her friend, founder of the I Am The Queen Bee (IATQB) movement, Dani Wallace. Dani experienced domestic abuse as both a child and as an adult and, with her sister Gemma Gallagher, created the FlyAnyway Foundation CIC, an organisation that helps people who have experienced domestic abuse to change their lives permanently with training, grants and mentorship to start their own business.
It is estimated that 1 in 5 people in the UK will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime, and the risk of serious assault and death at its highest for a woman after she leaves an abusive relationship—89% of women killed by their ex-partner from 2009 to 2018 were killed within the first year of separation. It is vital to support people both emotionally and financially once they have taken the difficult decision to leave their relationship, so they can move on to the next phase of their lives.
Felicity, who lives just a few minutes walk from the canal, tells:
“My own vision is that people should not only survive, but thrive in the absolute best life they can. I love Dani’s passion for using the strength of her business community to empower people not only build their own business, but a whole new life.”
Felicity raised over £2,000 for the FlyAnyway Foundation.
The story didn’t end when Felicity crossed the line in Liverpool after achieving her goal of walking 131 miles in six days. As she started to piece together her thoughts for her blog at findingfelicity.co.uk, it became clear that she had enough material to author an entire book.
“‘Felicity’ means ‘happiness’, and I’ve been fascinated by the concept my whole life,” reports Felicity. It seemed obvious to draw together my own personal contemplations on the human experience into the diary of my hike, and how all the things I have learnt through my studies helped keep me going during the hardest moments.”
Felicity is a keen walker and expected the hike to be strenuous, but she didn’t expect it to be as demanding as it was. As if walking an average of 22 miles every day, the weather played a huge part with torrential rain from days 2 to 4. Day 3 was particularly wet and windy, and brought additional trials such as navigating away from the canal towpath at Foulridge Tunnel, just when Felicity’s mobile phone malfunctioned.
“There were multiple occasions when I looked at the scenery and thought, ‘this would be lovely on a nice day, but today is not a nice day.’ Sometimes I just had to get my head down, think about the cause I was raising money for, and concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other.”
(The three photographs above are credited to Mike Barton and the one below to Felicity Pryke as she toasts her achievement in Liverpool!)
Felicity’s book, Walk the Walk, isn’t all doom and gloom though.
“There are two themes that run through the book. Firstly, the value of friendship and community. While this was a solo challenge, I did not do it alone as I had many friends who joined me with support and encouragement. Whatever difficulties we face in life, we never need to face them alone if we can open ourselves to accepting friendship and invest time into being a part of our communities.
“Secondly, the canal shows us the importance of embracing and flowing with the change of life. Situations change. People change. We change. If we don’t change, we never have the opportunity to grow, learn, develop, and progress, both as individuals and as a society. When the canal is still, it gets stale and polluted, and humans and humanity are the same. Change is the vital to the existence of life.”
Walk the Walk includes contributions from her friends Lee Fuller and Claire Wright who accompanied Felicity on her walk, along with the amazing stories Emily Mawson and Lejla Dauti.
“It was really important to include Emily and Lejla’s stories. They are hugely inspiring women who have come through awful situations to thrived after the support from the FlyAnyway Foundation.” Dani Wallace provides the foreword to the book.
Felicity concludes:
“To write and publish a book is a massive achievement for me. It’s fitting that, like the walk, the book is a collaborative project. I’m very proud of what I’ve produced, and I really hope that people enjoy reading it.”
Walk the Walk is available in both paperback and Kindle editions from Amazon. You can find out more about the book, along with Felicity’s reflexology and yoga classes at https://findingfelicity.co.uk/