A GRIEF-stricken Bradford man who turned his life around after tragic loss of his baby son will soon set off on a 1,700 mile walk from Africa to the UK to raise money for charity.
Liam McCarthy, of Thackley, struggled with drink to deal with grief after his baby son tragically died over 18 years ago.
Liam said: "My son tragically died when he was five days old, and I made a promise to him I would stop drinking on what would have been his 18th birthday. It's turned my life around.”
Now Liam does work to get children off the streets of Bradford and on Sunday his will travel to Africa to prepare for a 1,700 charity walk back to Bradford.
“I’ll be flying out to Gambia on Sunday to spend two weeks there.
“The people there have no access to clean water. They struggle daily.
“I’ll spend two weeks visiting six villages and documenting the struggles they have.
“From there, I’ll head to Casablanca, Morocco, where I’ll make the 1,700 mile journey back to Bradford.
“I’ll be doing it all in aid of a water well project in Gambia and to help children in the UK.”
Liam said that he originally wanted to set off from Gambia and do a 3,500 mile back to Bradford.
However, he soon found out that neighbouring countries Mauritania and Western Sahara would not be safe for him to travel through.
Liam said: “There’s a conflict going on and I was told by the Head of Security in Gambia that if they see a Westerner in those places there was a chance I could get robbed or kidnapped.
“Without security it wouldn’t have been plausible for me.
“So, the safest route to start from was Morocco. I’m aiming to walk and run from Casablanca to Bradford in 80 days.
“I’ve been training for it for the last year. Since October, I’ve been running, cycling, swimming and mountain walking.
“I find these kinds of things help me cope with the grief I felt when I lost my son.
“I used to do a lot of drinking to cope, but I pretty much gave that up and decided that helping people was the best thing to do.
So, Liam and three of his friends, Ben Adamson, James Adamson and Aaron Mazurke, who all grew up on Thorpe Edge, have taken 15 children off the streets of the estate to train at Eastburn Boxing Club.
"Our aim is to help get kids off the streets of Bradford and the UK and into something positive.
"All four of us were in a bit of bother when we were younger.
"Now we have taken to TikTok to tell others how we're turning our lives around.
"We're trying to inspire others to change."
Liam added that he will be documenting his walk with regular updates on TikTok and Instagram. He will also set up a GoFundMe page when he arrives in Africa.
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