A FUNDRAISER aiming to boost Hope House's coffers to the tune of £20,000 says his walk across America in 2023 will be his biggest challenge to date.

Paul Edwards, 57 and from Penycae near Wrexham, will land on the west coast of America on January 3, next year, as he embarks on a 3,000 mile walk to South Carolina in the east.

With his visa confirmed and flights booked, Paul – who is an ultramarathon runner – says the chance to help the lives of terminally-ill children at the Morda-based hospice is what is motivating his efforts.

"There are many reasons why I've chosen Hope House for to raise funds for doing this," he said.

"I don't have kids myself but I have friends who have lost children to long-term illness.

"I am 57 now and will be 58 by the time I finish it and some of the kids won't even have a chance to know what that's like.

"They haven't had a chance to build a legacy – it's different when older people die as it's still sad but they're older.

"These kids won't have a chance and parents will never get over the loss of a child so I think it needs to be highlighted."

Paul is no stranger to huge fundraising challenges, previously taking on the biggest walk in the UK, and hopes that people can get his fundraising up-and-running before he heads Stateside.

He added: "This is my biggest challenge so far – last year I did John O'Groats to Land’s End dressed as Deadpool.

"That went really well and raised about £16,000, and the year before that I walked from Fort William in Scotland and climbed the Three Peaks on the way through.

"These are all solo, and self-supported, and that raised just under £10,000 but this walk across America, I'm looking to raise £20,000.

"That's as a minimum too and with it being Stateside, hopefully we can get a lot of interest from there too.

"Supporting terminally-ill children is the same everywhere – when I did the Deadpool walk, I came via the Racecourse and the Netflix team filming the Wrexham documentary and spent a few hours with them.

"The Hope House sticker was on my backpack and that's getting the awareness out there for them, not just me doing something for them.

"I hope that people support me with a boost before we leave.

"We've got Hope House in Oswestry but also Ty Gobaith in Conwy – I'm from Penycae, which is border country, and there's 66 families in Wrexham who use Hope House.

"It covers the whole Marches area and North Wales so it's important for me to get awareness out to people on how we can help because they don't come under the umbrella of the NHS.

"The pandemic put an end to mass participation events for a while but I was able to do a lot of things because I was walking and I was able to keep that interest going."

To help Paul's fundraising, you can head to https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/2023WalkacrossAmerica