A MAN who discovered that getting out in nature helped him overcome his alcohol addiction is raising money by walking over 100 miles to the Winter Solstice. 

Pete Reading, originally of Arbroath, Scotland, and now lives in Gravesend, in Kent, struggled with alcoholism for more than 30 years and said hiking and getting out in nature helped him overcome his addiction.

He now talks with numerous people during his journeys and often encounters others struggling with substance abuse.

Pete said: “I’m quite honest and I just tell people sort of what I’ve been through, and I think me being honest helps them to open up and talk themselves. Almost everybody I talk to and tell them my story, if it’s not them, it’s a family member or a friend, everybody’s affected by it some way or another.”

The 47-year-old has now been sober since March. 

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Pete said: “I’ve had other periods of sobriety, but none of it’s ever clicked. I feel like this time, with getting out into nature and walking, it’s just changed something up there and I’ve connected with it. It’s given me a different sort of outlook on life. I was always chasing a buzz, but now I just get the buzz from being outdoors.

“I think it’s where we’re supposed to be. I do feel a connection to it and I think it’s almost like a primal sort of connection. We’re actually supposed to be out there. For a long time I was walking out in nature, then I started realising I’m actually a part of it. We’re not just in it, we’re a part of it, the same as any other animals that are out there.”

Now, Pete is taking his love of walking and using it to raise money.

He had already been planning on visiting Stonehenge for the Winter Solstice, but when he heard about the damage that Warming Up the Homeless had experienced during flooding in Hastings, he decided to make the journey by foot to raise money for its recovery efforts.

Pete is currently walking from Gravesend to Stonehenge for the popular event on Friday, December 22. 

This is his second cross-country hike, first being earlier this year, when he hiked for 260 miles to raise money for the Meningitis Research Foundation and first met the people who operate Warming Up the Homeless.

Pete said: “I’d done a charity walk in the summer, which all went very well, and this charity that I’m helping out. They helped me in the summer. They let me in to use their facilities, have a shower. I hadn’t showered for a couple of weeks so it was great to get a shower. They fed me and stuff, so I became friends with them.”

His latest walk has now raised more than £1,000 for Warming Up the Homeless. To donate, go to JustGiving page.

Pete regularly posts pictures from his journey on his Facebook page, Walking With A Reason.