John Hunt and Family Walk 120 Miles to Honour Late Wife and Daughters

Mapping the 120-Mile Route From Hertfordshire to Bournemouth

The group planned the route to conclude in Bournemouth, a coastal destination chosen for its deep personal significance to the family.

The coastal town served as a frequent getaway where John and his late wife, Carol, went to unwind and reconnect away from demanding work schedules. Bournemouth is a place Carol and I always used to relax and rewind whenever we got the opportunity to have a few days together, John explained, noting that heading back there provides a natural destination for their journey. John remarked to the BBC: We are simply not the same anymore but [Bournemouth] it’s still a place where we can be really reflective and feel really close to the girls.

Daily distances vary across the nine-day itinerary, shifting from shorter nine-and-a-half-mile stretches to more demanding legs of 18 and 19 miles. While John previously completed a gruelling 15-and-a-half-hour non-stop walking challenge in the Brecon Beacons with Racing Welfare, the upcoming trek avoids mountainous terrain, though the sheer distance remains a significant test.

Training Consistency Amid a Busy Racing Calendar

Preparing for a 120-mile endurance challenge requires rigorous physical conditioning, which John has integrated directly into his daily life as a professional racing commentator. Rather than relying on a structured gym routine alone, he has turned racecourses across the country into impromptu training grounds.

The main thing has been to develop consistency, John noted, detailing a regimen that involves completing miles before breakfast and taking advantage of racecourse venues before diving into work commitments at tracks like Salisbury, where he walks the perimeter multiple times.

Physical fitness played a central role in the lives of Carol, Louise, and Hannah, all of whom loved staying active and spent considerable time in the gym. Returning to that environment initially proved immensely painful for the surviving family members; John told the BBC that when he and Amy first went back to the gym together, it was such a difficult day but such a profound day in many ways.

When Amy and I first went back to the gym together that was such a difficult day but such a profound day in many ways, John shared, recalling how Hannah used to encourage him to push through his workouts with her signature phrase, come on Dad, you get to do this.

Processing Grief Through Movement and Shared Purpose

The emotional toll following the July 2024 deaths left the family immobilized in the immediate aftermath. When we first lost the girls we were frozen to the spot and we literally couldn’t move (with John adding via the BBC that he couldn’t get out of bed, and noting that there were various points along the way that made us realise that we have to start moving), John recalled, describing how basic tasks like walking from the lounge to the kitchen for a kettle felt like monumental hurdles.

Gradually, physical movement became a mechanism for coping with daily trauma. Amy reflected on the ongoing emotional toll, describing how anyone who’s known great loss or experienced immense trauma as we have will know that is a daily battle and a daily struggle while emphasizing the need to discover a semblance of meaning in a world that suddenly feels completely meaningless (adding to the BBC that this walk is a way for them to do that and to challenge themselves, with the walk also raising money for the Hunt Family Fund which Amy said she hoped would do some really good work in our community).

The initiative also serves as a vehicle to support wider community efforts. What began as an intimate family walk quickly expanded to draw broader attention to systemic societal issues that continue to impact families across Britain.

Expanding the Hunt Family Fund to Combat Violence Against Women

The 120-mile trek directly benefits the Hunt Family Fund, established last year to honour the lives and spirit of Carol, Louise, and Hannah and raise money to help tackle violence against women (launched last December following initial fundraising efforts spearheaded by colleagues and close friends with a major event at Cheltenham). John told Sportinglife that at that time, he and Amy had no energy and no capacity to carry it forward, but as their energy and capacity levels increased, his sister Alison came up with the idea of the walk.

Both John and Amy are vocal advocates for professional mental health support—noting to Sportinglife that they had both been to counselling that week—and pointing out that high-quality counselling remains so hard to obtain and vitally important, yet chances of getting it if you cannot pay are very slim indeed. Directing financial resources to organizations that help people source that kind of counselling forms a core pillar of their ongoing mission.

Violence against women remains a huge issue, nothing seems to have changed a great deal since we lost our girls nearly two-and-a-half years ago now so let’s keep going with that, let’s keep the awareness going and let’s try and keep the funds going to people who need it the most.

John Hunt, via Sportinglife

With support from family members, close friends, and the wider racing community, the walk stands as a testament to endurance, memory, and an unwavering commitment to honouring the lives of Carol, Louise, and Hannah.