Passionate Chesterfield litter picker ‘over the moon’ after walking 500 miles and raising £3,500 for charity

Lee, 40, of Brimington, has had to face several challenges on his way – including a theft, a broken down litter truck, steep hills and speeding lorries but it has not stopped him from continuing his 500 miles journey across Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, South Yorkshire and bits of Lincolnshire.

He said: “I'm absolutely over the moon with raising over three and a half thousand for Bluebell. They are a brilliant charity doing amazing things for the children in the area.

"The hardest thing was trying to keep going through. After you've been out there for two or three weeks it gets tough. It's it is a challenge to push the truck around, walk and litter pick at the same time.”

To help him carry heavy bags full of litter, Lee built a ‘Litter Picking Monster Truck’ ahead of his journey – but traveling with it soon proved very challenging.

Lee said: "The truck is quite big and a metre wide so it sticks out quite far into the road. Some of the lanes I was going down were small and narrow. There were lorries coming from behind me and it was quite scary at times.

"I had to get around some really tight bends, blind corners over hills. And I could hear a big lorry coming behind me. I wore a high-vis vest so people could see me and I'm a big guy. I think I was lucky that there was never an incident.”

But the size of the Monster Truck was not the only issue that Lee faced – as one of the truck’s wheels suddenly ‘blew up’ in the middle of nowhere.

Lee said: “The truck is made out of a fishing barrel. People usually take them out of the car to go half a mile to the fishing lake and then they take all the equipment off it. It's not designed for walking 500 miles. I wore out the tires and one of them blew up. I was stuck out in the middle of nowhere, but thankfully, Ruth who's a manager at Bluebell, came before work, picked me up and drove me back home.”

When Lee got back to Brimington, he was quite surprised with the state of the streets – as he expected to see much more litter.

He said: “I was gone for about 40 days and when I got back, Brimington was a lot better than I was expecting. It is difficult to compare Chesterfield to other places where I picked litter. In some of the towns I have been to, I could spend a whole week or even a month litter picking.

"Generally the busier the road is the more litter is lying around. And places, where lorries stay overnight, are just terrible and disgusting – there is a lot of fly-tipping and litter there. From villages and towns, one of the worst places that stick out to me is Maltby, a mining town near Rotherham.

"But, on the other hand, when I got past Retford and to North Lincolnshire, there was hardly any litter. It's really, really nice that some places are clean and unfortunate that some places are not.”

After his truck broke down, Lee spent about a week in Brimington litter picking and preparing for the rest of his journey. When he went to a local fishing shop to get a new truck, he was lucky enough to meet one of his friends – Daniel Lee, who decided to buy him a brand-new truck for £275.

Lee said: “When I told Daniel what happened he said he loved what I was doing for charity and that he wanted me to keep going. That was amazing.

"But on the flip side, unfortunately, there was something wrong with the new truck. It wouldn't go in a straight line – every five steps it was going banana shape. So after pushing it for another 100 miles, I cut my trip short, because it was too difficult to keep pushing the truck.”

Even though Lee did not manage to complete his aim of litter picking for 100 days, he was not discouraged – and he is still hoping to raise even more funds via his JustGiving page. On top of that he plans to do more litter picks to collect funds for Bluebell Wood in the future.

He said: “I cut my trip a little bit short, but I'm really happy with the litter pick overall. I got such an amazing amount of money. I feel that I've accomplished something.

"Blubell have been absolutely amazing all the way through and very supportive. They've contacted Morrison's and Tesco as I've been walking around and they've given me free food. When I had some things stolen from my truck when I was camping and had to order more equipment, Ruth from Bluebell went and collected parcels from the local post office and brought them to me.

“I couldn't ask for any more help and support. They even invited me for dinner when I was in the area and we all sat down at the table with all managers and heads of the departments. They are lovely people and I’m going to do some more fundraising for Bluebell next year again. I feel a strong connection with them.”