Ceredigion farming family hikes 100km for Down’s awareness

A farming family and their support team of more than 100 people from Ceredigion have rallied together to raise awareness for Down’s Syndrome by walking 100km (60 miles) of the Wales coast path.

Wearing odd socks, the group set off in the early hours of Saturday morning (22 March) in Cardigan, west Wales.

Rhys and Katie Jones, together with their team of supporters, faced some tricky weather conditions and pushed through tiredness, a few blisters and exhaustion, before arriving at Ynyslas beach 24 hours later in the early hours of Sunday morning.

See also: Farmer completes fitness challenge in wellies

This year’s challenge took place a day after Down’s Syndrome Awareness Day (21 March) to allow more people to join the event on the weekend.

The task of raising awareness, as well as vital funds for the Down’s Syndrome Association, has been a roaring success for the farming family, whose efforts have seen more than £9,000 raised in the process so far.

© Rhys Jones

Overwhelmed 

Rhys and Katie, who alongside the family’s beef and sheep enterprise at Dolbeudy, Felinfach, also run a farm gym – Cattlestrength – said they were overwhelmed with the response from the community.

The couple have three children, Harri, 5, Jack, 4, and Lola, 3.

Harri was born with undiagnosed Down’s Syndrome (DS) and, while it was a shock for the family at first, they soon learned that children with the condition are capable of so much more than many give them credit for, even those in the medical profession.

“I had no idea about DS or anything it entailed before Harri was born,” said Rhys. “It took us a good year to adapt to the new life.

“But we soon learned that many people with DS are so capable – they run Ironman challenges, they’re Hollywood actors, they’re powerlifters and they’re breaking world records.”

Opening the new gym in 2024 gave the couple inspiration to introduce the Cattlestrength community to DS and raise awareness.

They have done this by, for example, introducing “sign of the week” and Makaton, which combines signs and symbols to help children with DS develop their speech.

“Being introduced to Harri and DS, the farming, rural and gym community have taken positively to it,” said Rhys.

“So many people come to the gym now and say good morning in sign language – from my perspective, that’s incredible.”

Grateful for the community and the support, Rhys added: “A lot of the local farming businesses and farming families all support the community, and doing Harri’s hike you get that community support that the agricultural space in Ceredigion provides.”