Laurence Carter has dedicated the proceeds from his book ‘From Grief to Love‘ to The Eve Appeal. In his book, he chronicles his year-long 4,300-mile walk around the coast of England and Wales.

In 1987, Laurence was working as an economist in Malawi. One day he walked into the office and saw this lovely woman in a bright yellow dress with curly black hair. Her name was Melitta and she was an agricultural economist. That day his life changed. He was smitten. They married, spent 28 years together and had three children 

In July 2013, after months of gruelling therapy, she received more results: the cancer had spread. She was given 12-18 months to live.  

Melitta died in September 2015. She was just 53 years old.  

Laurence’s biggest regret is that he didn’t remind Melitta about her cervical screening test. She had reminded Laurence about his medical screenings. 

“She wasn’t that late,” he says, “about 3 or 4 months…but that was the difference between stage 3 and stage 4 cervical cancer.” 

In spring 2017, Laurence decided to walk around the coast of England and Wales. He set a clear goal: ‘to raise awareness that we can eliminate cervical cancer within a generation’.  

He raised funds for research, for awareness-raising and for lobbying to set a firm target for the elimination of cervical cancer.  

He started in June 2018 at Seaford, on the south coast, where his Mum came to wave him off. A year later, he arrived back at the same spot. His Mum said “That was a good walk, Laurence, what are you going to do now?”  

He had walked the entire 4,314 miles wearing shorts, even in the depths of winter. In the process, he raised £80,000 and wore out three pairs of boots.  

The walk gave Laurence time to reflect. He stayed in hosted Airbnbs, where he could spend time talking with the owner. He was surprised by how many people he met had experiences with cervical cancer, from losing loved ones to people living and thriving after their treatment. 

“Melitta would have loved the idea of walking, we always hiked as a family, and she would have spent hours photographing the birds and the trees along the way. And she would have enjoyed the sociability of the whole effort.” 

He was so taken with the poignant, funny and heartwarming stories of those he met that he decided to write a book. That was much harder than he expected, “The physical effort of walking around England was not difficult. Writing the book took five times as long. It took me the whole year’s walk to figure it out what my main takeaway was, and in the end my conclusion was a question: What can we do for those we love? Now, before it’s too late. Because our lives can change in a moment.”  

Laurence was delighted when in November 2023 NHS England announced that it was setting a target date of 2040 for the elimination of cervical cancer.  

During the last week of the walk, Laurence opened an email from a librarian in his home town of Bethesda, Maryland. She had read about his story in a local magazine. Her husband had died of cancer a few years earlier. Would he like to take a walk and join her for a beer, she wondered? Everything changed again. 

Five years later they are engaged, and life is great! He sees his three adult children often and considers himself a lucky guy.  

He and his fiancée are heading to her country of birth, South Korea, where Laurence wants to scope out the next coastal trail. Only 2,800 miles this time! 

‘From Grief to Love: Walking around England and Wales‘ is available on Amazon as a paperback and on Kindle.

All proceeds from September 2024 to August 2025 go to The Eve Appeal. Laurence was impressed by The Eve Appeal’s outreach – “The whole purpose of the walk and the book was to get the message out in a fun way,” he said. 

Based on an original article by Jez Donaldson, freelance Journalist.