by Graham Tutthill

gtutthill@thekmgroup.co.uk

A woman who dreamt she was walking from a First World War battlefield is walking through Kent this weekend on her way from the Cenotaph to the Menin Gate in Belgium.

Marketing manager Caroline Copland, who works in London, hopes to raise more than £6,000 through the 125-mile walk in aid of Combat Stress, the military charity specialising in the care of veterans’ mental health.

She set off this morning from Whitehall and Caroline’s route is taking her from London to Dartford, Detling, Wye and Dover before crossing the Channel to Bergues in France, and finally arriving in Ypres on Thursday.

Caroline was inspired to undertake the remarkable trip when last October she dreamt that she was walking from the 1917 battlefield of Passchendaele back to Canary Wharf in London.

In the months of planning and training that has followed, the route has been refined to start at the Cenotaph, the symbol of British remembrance, and will end at the Menin Gate, a memorial dedicated to the British and Commonwealth soldiers who were killed in the Ypres Salient of the First World War.

Along the route Caroline will be regularly blogging on her JustGiving page and will also be joined by two members of the Royal Engineers for the Tuesday leg of the walk.

She aims to arrive at the Menin Gate in time to witness the nightly service of remembrance where buglers from the local fire brigade have played the Last Post every evening at 8pm since the gate was built in 1927.

“So many men and women have given their lives throughout history for our freedom,” she said.

“We will and we do remember them all over the world and specifically in a ceremony every year at the Cenotaph on Whitehall and every evening at the Menin Gate, the end of the First World War front line in Ypres, Belgium.

“Of those who do return from Service, no one comes back the same person who went away. That’s why I am so keen to support such a worthwhile charity.”