Just one year after a foot operation at The Horder Centre, 70-year-old Maggie de Vos completed the 500 mile Pilgrims’ Walk across northern Spain – on her own.

The operation, carried out by Consultant Surgeon Andrew Skyrme, was for a replacement toe joint in her left foot that had been painful for years.

Maggie asked her GP for a referral to The Horder Centre and said: “The Horder Centre was amazing from the minute I went in, from the level of care to the level of support. It was so clean and the staff weren’t harassed at all as you sometimes find in other hospitals. It was all great.”

Without the operation, Maggie says she would have been unable to embark on her adventure that went on to inspire the publication of her book “Santiago at Seventy” which tells the story of her journey along the Camino, the ancient pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela.

She said: “I had no support network and I did find it difficult but it was also exhilarating, especially when I climbed a mountain, and cathartic because I was on my own, and alone with my thoughts,  for so much of the time.

 

 

“Anyone who has any qualms about having a foot operation should read my book to see what you can do once you’re out of pain and walking properly.”

Maggie, now 77, continues to be active and has also completed the 100 miles of the Southdowns Way.

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