We met a lot of amazing, wonderful people along the Camino. LikeJake Moorman and his father, Martin, from Halifax, West Yorkshire, whom Rosan and I metas we were exiting Hontanas and heading into Castrojeriz.

They were walking with Hannah, a Berliner whom we had met the day before.

We met Hannah on the Meseta, shortly before coming upon Hornillos, where Hannah stopped for the night. Rosan and I carried on ten kilometers further to Hontanas. (In photo: Hannah and Rosan walking towards Hornillos, 11 April 2017.) The next day, as per usual, Rosan and I took our time leaving the albergue in Hontanas. Even Alan left way before us. We took such a long time that we had barely set out when Hannah and the Moorman caught up with us.

I offered to take their photo by the 15th century ruins of the Convento de San Anton and Jake, in turn, took ours.

The truth is that they stopped right in the middle of the ruins and were in all my photos, so I cheekily offered to take their photo if they could please move out of the way. 12 April 2017.

Jake then he lagged behind to chat with us. While we walked, he told us his incredible story.

I say “lagged” because Jake is 193 cm. (6’4") and Martin is 195.6 cm. (6’5"). Their long legs carry them very far very fast. For instance, this was our 11th day on the Camino. It was their 13th. We started in Pamplona. They started at St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port in the French Pyrenees. (That’s a difference of about 73 kilometers.) If Alan and I hadn’t bussed it from Villafranca Montes de Oca to Burgos (35 km.) to meet Rosan, we never would have met the Moormans.

A zumos de naranjas naturales break at Bar-Hostal El Manzano in Castrojeriz.

We also caught up with the Moormans at the Hotel En El Camino in Boadilla del Camino because Rosan and I taxied the last eight kilometers from Itero dela Vega, where we were supposed to spend the night, to regroup with Alan. 13 April 2017.

We bumped into the Moormans again on the streets of Carrion De Los Condes the next night. We were waiting for the Lenten processions to start. From left to right: Jake, Martin, Rosan, Thomas, me, and Hannah. 14 April 2017.

On Black Saturday, Alan, Rosan, and I took a taxi from Terradillos de Templarios to Sahagun and, from there, took a train to Leon (approx. 74.8 km.) so that we could watch the Easter processions. On Easter Sunday, the Moormans walked into Leon. They joined us while we were having lunch at Clandestino Gastrobar, where I got Jake to try croquettas with bacon and squid in its own ink. (Top left photo, clockwise around the table: Jake, Ivan from Hong Kong, Rosan, Alan, me, and Martin.)

Then we headed to Valor for ice cream, hot chocolate and churros. In the photo below, on the left, Jake Facetimed with his mom to show off his ice cream. 16 April 2017.

Martin isn’t in the photos because he was on the phone with work. I then learned that Martin, 52, is the headmaster at a school for children with special needs. His wife, Nicky, 51, also teaches at the school. Yes, the Moormans are truly good people.

Weeks later, as I was chatting with Jake online, congratulating him on his arrival in Santiago, I asked him if he could tell me his story again so that I could write about it. Following are his own words:

It all began on a family holiday to Lanzarote in February 2014. I vomited on a couple of occasions in the mornings, but we thought nothing of it.

Over the next few weeks, my balance began to be affected. I struggled to walk in a straight line and fell off my skateboard much more often. The vomiting returned on a much larger scale and became a daily thing. Then I started suffering debilitating headaches. It was at this point that my doctor sent me for an MRI.

The scan showed a cyst, clot, hemorrhage, tumor? They were not certain.[His symptoms were attributed to a hemorrhage in the brain, but the doctors could not pinpoint what was causing the bleeding.]This was on the 10th of April, 2014. I was rushed to Leeds Hospital where I was conservatively managed for the next few weeks. On the 30th of April, the doctors concluded that without an emergency operation, I was going to die in the ward. I had my first operation on May 1st. It lasted seven hours.

The operation was successful in buying me more time, and I recovered. I was well for approximately six months before the symptoms returned.

I had small hemorrhages, roughly on a monthly basis, throughout 2015 – until December, when I had a much bigger hemorrhage. At this point, we were on another family holiday in Scotland and so I was rushed between hospitals by ambulance and ended up spending New Year’s Eve at Edinburgh Hospital.

After this, my doctors decided they wanted to carry out another operation. I had this operation on the 9th of February 2016 and it lasted ten hours. During this surgery, a mass of around 7.5 cm. in diameter was removed. [The mass] was not easily categorized and so was simply labeled a benign tumor._
_

My recovery from the second operation involved me spending almost two months in a wheelchair, after which, approximately seven months of physiotherapy led to a hundred percent renewal of my balance.

Since I was discharged from physiotherapy, I have been totally fine. I am still a keen skateboarder and, in fact, work at an indoor skate park.

Jake is a fan of Curren Caples, Shane O’Neill, and Ryan Sheckler.

I will be studying geology and geography at Leeds University this September. I don’t know what job I want, but I know I want to do something I enjoy.

I started the Camino at St. Jean 799 km. ago on the 31st of March 2017.

When they started the trip, they were joined by Jake’s brother, Harry, and their cousin, Daniel Jones. Harry and Daniel left on Day 12 of their Camino to resume their studies back in the U.K. (From left to right: Daniel, Martin, Jake, and Harry.)

We arrived in Santiago today, the 24th of April, so we completed the entire distance in 28 days.

_We walked the Camino to say thank you spiritually and to say thank you physically by raising money._We have currently raised over £12000 for Brain Tumor Research and Support across Yorkshire. People can still donate via ourJust Giving page.

Jake turned 19 while on the Camino.

The birthday boy on 22 April 2017.

I asked him what he liked most about his journey and what he learned along the way.

My favorite thing was, without a doubt, the people and the conversations as I’m a massive extrovert.

_My highlight was Cruz De Ferro at sunrise, where I laid my stone and said thank you for the fact that I’m alive. I nearly died at

I think I’ve learnt that the secret to living a good life really does lie in simplicity. In the modern world, we have so much “stuff” but, at the end of the day, it’s all irrelevant. I think the Camino has been the greatest 28 days of my life and all I had was one rucksack.

***** Epilogue *****

Early this month, Jake got this from his doctor:

The family is continuing to raise money for brain tumor research. And Jake is already talking about walking the Camino de Santiago again.