Man walks 124 miles in daughter's memory
FamilyA man who often told his daughter he'd do anything for her – even walk all the way from London – is about to do just that.
Santino's daughter Maria died from a cardiac arrest in 2021 when she was just 17.
Starting on Thursday, Santino and a group of friends will walk 124 miles from London back to his home in Codsall, near Wolverhampton.
The walk will raise money for charities including Cardiac Risk in the Young.
Remembering his daughter, Santino described her as "amazing".
He said: "She was so thoughtful and caring. She just wanted to help others less fortunate than herself."
He said Maria would "play big sister" to other children straight away, and had doted on her own siblings when they were born.
"Her smile and her laugh, it was very infectious. She would lighten up any day or any moment," he said.
FamilyMaria, who had autism and dyspraxia, had been walking home from a work placement at a school near her home when she died.
Her father wanted to do something to mark what would have been her 21st birthday.
He said the group of walkers will also be sleeping in tents during the walk to raise awareness of homelessness.
"All her life I used to say to Maria that I'd walk from London for you," he said.
"It was just a show of love but in a jesting type of way, and it kept going round and round in my head.
"I spoke to my wife and said 'I'm going to walk from London', and my wife gave me the thumbs up."
The group will return home on 7 January, on the day Maria would have turned 21.
"I hope she'd be proud," her father said. "I know she would laugh that infectious laugh straight away, and I know she'd say I'm mad, but I'd see her lip curl into a smile of pride and that's what I want to do.
"I want to keep her memory alive and I want to also keep it alive in the type of person that she was."
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