The month of May saw us trotting, skipping, traipsing, and… well, walking our way through the first ever Equal Experts Walkathon.

Having been inspired by the team in our office in Pune – who ran their own event last year – we worked with the folks behind the fitness challenge app Hoofit to run a global Walkathon that helped us to get away from our screens, appreciate the outside world, and raise money for some very special charities while we were at it.

120 of us got walking – divided into 10 teams – and competition throughout the month was fierce.

Collectively, we walked a whopping 39,896,160 steps over the month, with some truly herculean efforts among us. In the end, the winning team (EE-sy Striders) trotted out 4,775,121 steps between them. This adds up to around 3,451km – the equivalent of walking from London to Turkey. Not bad when they all had day jobs to contend with too!

Walking for a much-loved colleague

We always wanted to make charity part of the Walkathon.

Our friend and colleague Ber Flynn – a brilliant Delivery Lead, also responsible for creating our popular Ice Breaker cards – was suffering from a rare form of cancer and we resolved to walk as far as we could for her.

Sadly, Ber passed away shortly before the end of our challenge, something that has come as a huge blow to all of us fortunate enough to know her.

As someone that saw the positive in everything and everyone, we’re taking Ber as inspiration and donating the money raised by our Walkathon to four charities, chosen by her and her family. Every single step has contributed to the donation.

Bringing the network together

To raise money for good causes, in memory of Ber, was a great motivator for us at Equal Experts. On top of that, it turned into an event that brought people together throughout the network. We had participants across Europe, in the USA, in India and in Australia – and even one person who was on holiday in Japan.

People got to know one another, they got competitive, they started posting photos from their walks – it really gripped our imaginations. Thanks to everyone involved –  we can’t wait to do it again next year.