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Dr. 'Colin Skinner' (born 1965) is a British adventurer and molecular biologist who is attempting to walk around the world. To date he has walked over 10,000 miles and has crossed Great Britain, Iceland, America and New Zealand.^[1] He has used the walks to raise money and awareness for various causes, including people with disabilities, cancer relief, AIDS, and hospices.

Contents

Education

Walking around the world

Walking Scotland to England

Walking across Iceland

Walking across the U.S.

Walking across New Zealand

Walking across Britain in 2007

Other world walkers and runners

Book

External links

References

Education

Skinner earned his BSc honours degree in biochemistry and genetics from the University of Leeds. He earned his PhD in molecular biology from the University College London.

Walking around the world

Walking Scotland to England

He began at the age of 18 at John o' Groats (at the northern tip of Scotland) in 1984, and walked to Land's End in England. On this journey, which he carried out with three other people, he pushed a wheelchair 1,000 miles and raised £3,500 for The Forelands School for handicapped children.

Walking across Iceland

In 1986, at the age of 20, whilst at the University of Leeds, he crossed Iceland, together with three other people, from Seyðisfjörður in the east, through the interior to the north of the Vatnajökull ice fields, and then west to Reykjavík. This 400 mile journey raised £2,000 for the Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation.
On the Icelandic trek, he came up with the idea of walking 6,000 miles, across Britain and America to raise money for MacMillan Cancer Relief in Britain and hospice in America and Canada.
On May 1, 1988, he set off again from John o' Groats, this time walking through the Western Highlands, down the Pennine Way and then south to Land's End: a distance of 1,100 miles in seven weeks. This walk raised £2,000 for MacMillan Cancer Relief.^[2]

Walking across the U.S.

The journey across the United States began on July 15, 1988. On the journey he slept in bushes beneath the World Trade Center, camped outside Kennedy Airport in a tent, then headed west. On Staten Island he collapsed from heat exhaustion at 105 degrees Fahrenheit. In Utah the temperatures went down to minus 30 Fahrenheit. Carrying a tent and a backpack, with no backup, he walked alone to Niagara Falls, through Ontario in Canada, to Detroit, between the Great Lakes, across the Great Plains, through the Rockies in winter, to Yellowstone National Park, then south to the Grand Canyon, on to Las Vegas, through Death Valley and then snowshoed over the Sierras to reach San Francisco. The total distance was 4,952 miles.^[3]
On the journey he visited 70 hospices and appeared on television, radio and in newspapers to encourage support for hospices across the U.S. and Canada. The mayor of San Francisco, Art Agnos, proclaimed 21 March, 1989 "Colin Skinner Day," in recognition of the attention he brought to the work of hospices with AIDS patients in the city.
Returning to Britain after this walk he obtained a job as a research assistant in Chemical Pathology at the Middlesex Hospital and went on to obtain a PhD in Molecular Biology at University College London. His PhD involved developing genetic tests to detect congenital adrenal hyperplasia in children.^[4] He had work published in a number of scientific journals.^[5] In 1994 he had his work published in ''Human Molecular Genetics''.^[6]
From 1994 to 1996 he worked as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, in Nashville, Tennessee.^[7] The work he carried out there involved gene sequencing and protein purification of cytochrome P450 enzymes.^[8]

Walking across New Zealand

In 1998 he walked from Cape Reinga in the North Island, to Bluff, at the southern tip of New Zealand. This was a distance of 1500 miles. On the journey he walked through the active volcano at White Island, experienced earthquakes up to 4.9 on the Richter Scale, clambered over glaciers, swam with seals and reported on conservation projects involving endangered species. Information from the journey was posted on the Internet for schoolchildren in the U.S. via the Scholastic Corporation Scholastic Network.^[9]
In 1999 he obtained a PGCE (Post-Graduate Certificate in Education) from Christ Church College in Canterbury, England. In 2000 he worked as a secondary school science teacher at St. Edmunds School in Dover, teaching 11 to 16 year olds.^[10]
In 2001 he worked as a volunteer at a local wildlife park, working on enrichment activities for animals. From 2001 until 2003 he worked part time at a local post office. During this time, he also taught science to primary school children.
In 2003 his mother died from cancer. This prompted him to write the story of the 6,000 mile journey across Britain and America. In 2006 he finished the book 'Beyond the Setting Sun.' Ranulph Fiennes, the renowned Polar explorer and adventurer wrote an introduction to the book.^[11]
The book has been written to raise money for hospices in Britain, Canada and America.

Walking across Britain in 2007

On 29 April 2007 he began walking again at John o' Groats and arrived at Land's End on 8th June, having covered 900 miles in 6 weeks^[12]. He plans to walk the 5,000 miles across the U.S.A., starting in 2008. On the journey he will give talks at schools and to local organisations to encourage people to support their local hospice.
Future walks will take him through Australia, Japan, China, Tibet, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Egypt and Europe.

Other world walkers and runners

Other people who have walked or run around the world (or are attempting it) include Karl Bushby, Ffyona Campbell, Dave Kunst, Jesper Olsen (runner), and Rosie Swale-Pope.

Book

★ ''Beyond the Setting Sun- 6000 miles on foot for hospice.'' ISBN 1-4276-0913-6

External links

★ http://teacher.scholastic.com/zealand/meet.htm

★ http://drcolinskinner.org/

★ http://www.herefordtimes.com/

★ http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/

References

1. [1]
2. ''Taking a walk across America,'' East Kent Mercury, 7 July 1988
3. ''Scotland to S.F. 6,000-Mile Hike for Hospices'' San Francisco Chronicle, 22 March, 1989
4. Rumsby, G., Skinner, C., Lee, H.A. & Honour, J.W. (1992). Combined 17α-hydroxylase/ 17,20 lyase deficiency caused by heterozygous stop codons in the cytochrome P450 17α-hydroxylase gene. ''Clin. Endocrinol.'' '39':483-485.
5. Rumsby, G., Skinner, C. and Honour, J.W. (1992). Genetic analysis of the steroid 21-hydroxylase gene following ''in vitro'' amplification of genomic DNA. ''J. Steroid. Biochem.'' '41':827-829.
6. Skinner, C.A. & Rumsby, G. (1994). Steroid 11β-hydroxylase deficiency caused by a five base pair duplication in the ''CYP11B1'' gene. ''Hum. Mol. Genet.'' '3':377-378.
7. Keeney D.S., Skinner C., Travers J.B., Capdevila J.H., Nanney L.B., King L.E. Jr., Waterman M.R.(1998). Differentiating keratinocytes express a novel cytochrome P450 enzyme, CYP2B19, having arachidonate monooxygenase activity. ''J. Biol. Chem.'' 273 '48':32071-32079.
8. Keeney D.S., Skinner C., Wei S., Friedberg T., Waterman M.R. (1998). A keratinocyte-specific epoxygenase, CYP2B12, metabolizes arachidonic acid with unusual selectivity producing a single major epoxyeicosatrienoic acid. ''J. Biol. Chem.'' 273 '15':9279-9284
9. [2]
10. ''What is it about teaching that's enticing so many of us Back to School?'' The Sunday Express Magazine, 7 November 1999
11. [3]
12. [4]