Peak Pilgrimage

Neil Bennett has generously offered to run the 39-mile Peak Pilgrimage route to raise awareness of the work of Anna Chaplaincy, our ministry with older people. He told our comms officer Eley McAinsh why he’s taken on such an arduous challenge.

7 September 2025

Raising awareness

Neil, a PR executive, charity trustee and former business editor on the Telegraph, is hard at work building up his stamina. A former ultra-marathon runner and one-time Iron Man – ‘but that was 20 years ago!’ – he’s looking to cover the 39-mile route through the stunning White Peak District over two days, at a very respectable five miles an hour. ‘Now I’m 60 and my knees are better off with bicycles, but this,’ he says, ‘is an exception.’ Why?

The story begins with a close relative who was diagnosed with dementia and moved into a care home. ‘The one constant in her life has been her faith,’ says Neil. ‘She has lucid moments and when we visited her, she was able to make it clear that her dearest wish was to continue to worship in her local church, St Anne’s, Baslow.’

Reaching out to Anna Chaplaincy

When they realised that this was something so important, Neil’s wife contacted Anna Chaplaincy for help and advice. Thanks in part to that advice, her family has arranged for a carer, a companion, to take her to church, St Anne’s, Baslow, every Sunday morning.

‘I’ve seen the difference it makes to her,’ says Neil. ‘Although finding the texts and the hymns can sometimes be a challenge for her, during those services she’s extraordinarily calm and peaceful, and I believe that really is the Holy Spirit in action.

‘Yes, you can say it’s because the church is familiar to her – it’s calm, it’s structured. Yes, that’s all true. The congregation has also been wonderful and really welcoming. You bring it all together and it is enormously powerful. The weekly service is sustaining her at a really difficult time: it has quickly become the most important part of her life. I’ve seen it happen and that was the genesis of my idea to do something for Anna Chaplaincy.’

Relevant, different and resonant

As a PR professional, Neil knew that he couldn’t just repeat other fundraising activities he’d done in the past: whatever he decided to do, it had to be relevant, different and resonant.

‘I thought, what can I do that combines the faith element with an event. I thought about some kind of pilgrimage, and came across the brilliant British Pilgrimage Trust. They’ve been really helpful and have so much information to share. I knew there were various routes in the Peak District but the 39-mile Peak Pilgrimage route from Ilam to Eyam seemed perfect.’

Neil then realised that his relative’s birthday is the weekend of 20–21 September, which is also the weekend of his wedding anniversary, a wedding that took place in the very same church. ‘I just thought, “Oh, hello! This is coming together.”’

Getting in the miles

Neil has been running almost every day during the holidays and is planning some longer runs as he builds his fitness for the event. On Saturday 20 September, he’ll leave Ilam church at 1.00 pm and call in at Hartington (3.30 pm) and Monyash (5.30 pm), before arriving at Bakewell church around 6.30 pm.

Bright and early the following morning, he’ll leave Bakewell at 7.15 am, go through Chatsworth and arrive at St Anne’s, Baslow for the morning service and a little birthday celebration.

‘She can’t take too many people, so it’s going to be quite small, and I will just have a cup of tea, sing happy birthday and give her a kiss, and then I will carry on to Eyam. I’ll do the last bit with my training partners, our dogs.’

So what will keep Neil going when the going gets tough?

‘The scenery is stunning, absolutely beautiful, so mentally that’s encouragement in itself. It’s White Peak, the southern part of the Peak District, and the route goes through a number of Dales valleys like Dovedale, and then onto the Tissington Trail, so there are quite long flat sections between some steep ups and downs.

‘Then obviously good nutrition and lots of water. And spiritually, it’s interspersed with churches every few miles, where I will say a prayer, so they’re quite special milestones.’

High hopes

Of course Neil wants to raise as much money as possible for Anna Chaplaincy through his run, and he’s also quite keen ‘not to fall over and be hospitalised’. But what is most important to him is to raise awareness about dementia.

‘I know,’ he admits, ‘I was one of those people who, when I first came across dementia, wasn’t particularly understanding or sympathetic. Like a lot of people, I was disturbed by it. But now that I understand much more about it and have seen what helps. I really want people to recognise that it’s an illness and that people living with dementia still need to be welcomed and included in their communities. Yes, someone might be able to receive Communion in their room in a care home, but Communion is also about community, about coming together to worship and knowing, feeling, that you belong.

‘We live in an age when everyone has had a friend, a relative or a relative of a friend who’s been diagnosed with dementia, and we need to learn how to care better for people living with dementia.

‘One of the ways we can do that is enabling them to continue to worship, but it’s bigger than that. It’s about allowing them to continue to – it’s a bit of cliché, but it’s true – live their lives. Live their best lives; to continue to be part of society, while living with the illness, and not be hidden away and forgotten. Just because they’re forgetting things doesn’t mean we should forget them!’