A group of staff from Riello UPS are gearing up for the ultimate test of endurance. We’re walking from our head office in Wrexham all the way to Port Vale Football Club’s famous Vale Park stadium in Burslem, Staffordshire.
Our ‘Riello UPS Power Walk For Peter’ is a show of solidarity for our popular and long-serving colleague Peter Walthall, who was diagnosed with the degenerative condition Motor Neurone Disease (MND) in December 2024.
The charity challenge’s final destination of Vale Park is a particularly poignant one for Peter, who has been a passionate Port Vale fan for more than 50 years, including more than 20 years as a season ticket holder.
Several of our team will undertake the full 40-mile sponsored walk, which we’re splitting over 2 days [Friday 19 and Saturday 20 September] with an overnight camping stop. But many more of Peter’s teammates, family, and friends will join the main group at various points along the route in a ‘Riello UPS Relay’ to show their support.
They will conclude their walk to tie in with Port Vale’s League One home fixture with Mansfield Town.
Colleagues from Riello UPS’s Scottish office in Cumbernauld were so inspired by the Wrexham to Port Vale walk that they are doing a similar trek of their own. They will walk 38 miles from the Cumbernauld office to Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh on the same weekend.
Even colleagues who work out of our other regional branches in Letchworth (Hertfordshire) and Fareham (Hampshire) are getting in on the act and joining in with our fundraising efforts. Each office is laying on other ways for staff to complete the equivalent distance on a treadmill.
“Peter is a hugely popular and well-respected part of our team, and his MND diagnosis came as a huge shock to us all. But what doesn’t surprise us is the determination that he and his family have shown in facing the disease head-on, it’s a mark of the man that we have come to know and love over the years.
“The MND Association have offered Peter and his wife Tracey invaluable advice and assistance over recent months. The work they do is vital for so many families across the country impacted by MND and it’s why we’re proud to support them as our Charity of the Year for 2025.
“We’d also like to pay tribute to Port Vale Football Club, they’ve really gone above and beyond to assist with our walk and we really do appreciate their amazing support.
“And while our team certainly has a challenge on their hands walking from Wrexham to Port Vale and also Cumbernauld to Edinburgh, we’re more than sure they will be up to the task and hope they’ll raise lots of money along the way.”
- Leo Craig, Managing Director of Riello UPS
More Support For The MND Association
All funds we receive will go to the MND Association, the organisation that focuses on improving access to care, research, and campaigning for those people living with or affected by MND in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
Motor Neurone Disease (MND) is a rapidly progressing degenerative condition that affects how messages from your brain reach your muscles. It affects up to 5,000 adults in the UK at any one time and there’s a 1 in 300 risk of getting it across a lifetime.
While symptoms can be managed to help achieve the best possible quality of life, MND is life-shortening and there is currently no cure. It kills a third of people within a year of diagnosis and more than half within two years.
Please dig deep and give generously to support such a worthy cause. You can donate direct on our JustGiving page. Peter, his family, and everyone here at Riello UPS are extremely grateful for your support!