Charity Champion or Volunteer of the Year nominee – Nathan Walton

Charity Champion or Volunteer of the Year nominee – Nathan Walton

A Staffordshire businessman has personally raised around £400,000 for charity over the past three decades.

As part of a fundraising team he has raised more than £1.5 million.

Nathan Walton, the CEO of Insurance Connections, volunteered for the Samaritans for several years followed by challenges in aid of Mencap which took him around the world to compete in cycling challenge from Egypt and the Great Wall of China to Rio de Janeiro.

Since then the 57-year-old has participated in various charity campaigns, with a key focus on fundraising for the Douglas Macmillan Hospice and The Donna Louise – both close to Nathan’s heart.

His challenges have included two Tower-to-Tower, Paris to London, challenges raising more than £400,000. In 2017 he and a friend lived in smart car for a week in The Potteries Shopping Centre. He walked the Thames path in 2022. In 2023 he completed the Marathon Des Sables, a 250km ultra-marathon in the Sahara Desert.

Over the past two decades he has helped the Donna Louise Trust as a corporate donor, volunteer, trustee and Director of Fundraising

This month he is going out of his comfort zone as a contestant in the Strictly Knot Dancing event at the King’s Hall in Stoke to raise money for the Dougie Mac.

Nathan has been nominated in the Charity Champion or Volunteer of the Year category of the Your Heroes Awards.

As Nathan’s nominator said: “I feel Nathan’s wonderful dedication to helping charity should be recognised. He should be very proud of his dedication and commitment to helping people and local charities.”

Nathan said: “I have a never-ending passion to do what I can for others. I love physical challenges and pushing myself and despite having plenty of injuries and illnesses along the way, including breaking my leg in four places and getting salmonella, I am always looking for the next way of raising money for charity.

“What I do gives me a real sense of purpose and I can assure you that many of the venues and places might sound exotic but they really are done in very demanding environments. I think I’ve taken part in enough based in hot climates, perhaps I should be looking at somewhere like the Arctic for my next one?

“But seriously, it makes me really happy to know that I can do my bit in making other people’s lives a bit better.”