Interview: Nina Barough, founder of The MoonWalk London

This year is the 20th anniversary of The MoonWalk London – an event that has raised millions to help fight breast cancer. Here, Nina Barough, founder and chief executive of breast cancer charity, Walk the Walk, shares her inspirational story.

Christopher Ison

In the hazy state between sleeping and waking countless thoughts often tumble into the mind. For me, it’s usually a running order of children’s afterschool activities or things I need for dinner.

But for Nina Barough CBE, founder of Woking-based breast cancer charity Walk the Walk, it was a single image – a vivid picture of women powerwalking in bras en masse to raise money for breast cancer charities.

But unlike me, who has usually forgotten my list of thoughts before I get to the bottom of the stairs, Nina stored her idea and in so doing has saved not only her own life, but those of women the world over.

“For some reason, I held on to it and mentioned it to my friends,” explains Nina. The idea grew into a plan for Nina and her friends to powerwalk the 1996 New York Marathon wearing strikingly colourful bras in aid of breast cancer charities. Nina is, however, quick to point out that a weekend in New York with her mates was the real impetus and that in the end it was “a flippant” decision that could quite easily have gone the other way. Nevertheless, the pals raised more than £25,000 for charity.

“People kept asking me why I was doing it,” she says. “And I didn’t really know what to say. At that point I didn’t have a good story.”

But amid talk of more walks being fitted in around her busy job as a stylist, fate stepped in and just two months after that initial marathon, Nina found a lump in her breast.

“I would not even have found the lump had I not been doing what I was doing [with the charities],” she says. “It was very tiny, like a little pea or a pine nut. It wasn’t anything big or dramatic but I knew I had to see a doctor.”

Nina was told she had probably had the lump for about three years and that the cancer was aggressive. Alongside the treatment, Nina determined to get her body in the healthiest shape possible to give her the strength to fight the disease.

“When you find out something like that it is all consuming,” she admits. “I had to give up my job and so I started to walk even more.” Nina says it was at this point her charity Walk the Walk was born, but she admits that with everything that was going on, the details and dates are a little hazy.

“I have always said I don’t know whether I started Walk the Walk or whether Walk the Walk supported me. But it was there for me and it certainly carried me through one of the most difficult periods in my life.”

Thankfully, Nina was successfully treated and in the 20 years since her diagnosis her initial dream of hundreds of women walking through central London has evolved into The MoonWalk – a 26.2-mile overnight trek through the streets of central London, in which thousands of people don flamboyant bras in aid of a great cause. It has established itself as one of the country’s most important annual fundraising events.

And the Walk the Walk charity, which is based on the Genesis Business Park in Woking, now oversees not only the London walk but also the Arctic Marathon (a backcountry skiing event in Lapland), a Three Land Challenge (three, 26-mile walks across England, Scotland and Iceland) and even an Inca Trail Challenge in Peru. More than 400,000 people have taken part in the events raising a massive £113m along the way.

“It’s ordinary people just getting out there,” Nina says with obvious pride. “They are not athletes. Many of them have never even owned a pair of trainers before. They have never taken on anything like this. It’s a great introduction into realising you can do something.”

HRH The Prince of Wales cuts a special 20th Birthday cake for Walk the Walk with The Tootsie Rollers and charity founder and Chief Executive Nina Barough CBE copy.jpg

Ian Jones

Patron, Prince Charles, cuts a special 20th birthday cake

Nina admits that a lot of first timers do underestimate the task. “You have to remember 26 miles is a long way and you are walking at night against your body clock,” she says. “It may look like Barbie, with all the pink and feathers, but in reality the walk is far more Lara Croft in terms of challenge.

“The more you prepare the more you will enjoy it,” she adds. “If at 15 miles you are worried about your shins, then it’s going to be a very, very long night.”

And although the walk started out with the vision of an army of marching bra-wearing women, there are plenty of men who get involved too. The charity even has a male a patron – HRH the Prince of Wales no less, whom Nina describes as “a very lovely man”. And although she can’t quite remember how he landed the job, she is obviously delighted to have him on board.

“I can’t think of anyone who could be better,” she declares proudly. “His organic values and his beliefs in the power of each of us to reach our own potential are all akin to our policies. He is tremendously warm and has a great sense of humour.

“In fact he delights in telling people I am constantly asking him do The MoonWalk in a bra, which of course I’m not as it would be a nightmare with all the security. But we’ve put him in some very compromising picture situations (see above) and he always handles it well.”

Yet despite all the good work, breast cancer remains one of the biggest killers of women in the UK. “Although we’ve come a long way with primary cancers, you could almost say that they’re treatable if found early enough,” reveals Nina. “But with secondary cancers that’s not the case, and that is where the work needs to be done. Until it is a treatable disease and until women with secondary cancers have choices of survival we all need to keep our heads down and keep going.”

Walk the Walk works by issuing grants to various projects, whether that is in providing care or for large research projects. “We really want to make a difference,” asserts Nina. “And for that to happen we need the research to happen now, not in two or 10 years’ time – now.”

Alongside the larger funding stream is the Community Grant – a pot of £500,000 which is shared out among grassroots projects. “This is for people who are on the frontline dealing with cancer and who may need £3,000 for equipment. It may seem a small amount but it will have a massive impact for the community.”

Nina is evidently passionate about the work the charity is supporting and she is equally passionate about how making small steps can transform your wellbeing. Before writing this feature, I was warned I would not be able to speak to Nina without signing up to one of this year’s events. And sure enough, by mid-point in our conversation I was already worrying about the size of bra I would need to decorate!

But if after reading this you still need further encouragement, I will leave it to Nina to give you that final push.

“Encouraging someone to take part is really like giving them a gift for life. There are not many things where you can say, ‘I’m going to do that, I am going to do some good and I’m going to get a medal for it’.” So go on, what are you waiting for?