My name is Neville Cameron and I walk around Wymondham whilst photographing where I’ve been. But why?

In July 2021 I was 25.5 stones in weight with severe health issues including diabetes but hey, I was happy enough. I’d had a few trips and falls but that just meant I needed more treats to make me feel better.

Anything would do, so long as there was a lot of it and it was sweet. A massive bar of Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut, because the fruit and nuts made it healthy (no I’m not joking), a box of cakes, anything.

On an off-chance, I had my blood pressure taken by the nurse at the doctor’s surgery and she said, “your blood pressure is very high”.

So what? I’d just walked from the car, so it would be high, was my reaction. A short while later we were on our way to Morrisons, in the car of course when my straight talking GP Contacted me on my iPhone. He said, “your blood pressure’s through the roof and isn’t helping your Diabetes. You need to diet, which is very difficult I know with all your medication and you need exercise”.

I replied, “but my knees and both my hips hurt so I can’t do much.”

Slashing away my smirking attitude he added sharply. “Well done then Mr Cameron, I’ll give you one month to live!”

I was totally gobsmacked. It felt like my lips had been superglued together as I dropped the phone. As I crawled out from the fog he’d made my life, I said to my very supportive wife: “Right I’m cutting my breakfast from 8 Weetabix to 4, I’m not having lunch and I’m cutting my dinner down by half. I’m also going to start walking every day.”

She replied, “I’m so glad, I’ve been warning you of this for years but you wouldn’t listen! Anyway I’ll make sure you…”

I stopped her mid sentence, “I’ve got to do this myself.”

“But you’ll…”

I interrupted again. “There’s only one way to do this, that's if I do it my way and I’m going to start right now with a long walk!”

That was it. The shoes were on and I was walking, thinking, “yeah! I’ll do a mile today then…”

All of a sudden my knees and hips froze in pain as I grasped a wall, my eyes were flashing bright white then blurry black blobs. I felt terrible, but I carried on thinking, “one month, one month.”

Turning for home it turned out I’d only actually walked around 322 metres and I was hanging onto the wall outside our back door. I wasn’t just breathing heavily. I was gasping for air wondering if my heart was leaving my chest.

That was it, I’d started walking and dieting. After a very painful, hyperventilating, hungry 7 days, I was losing weight, I was actually walking under a mile per day, my breathing wasn’t too severe the only horrid thing left was my profuse sweating, I mean I was soaked with the stuff.

I was convinced that Yvonne and others wouldn’t believe how far I’d walked and found the answer in my trouser pocket. My iPhone. I started taking pictures of my daily sedentary walk on the same route, but realised if I showed people the same route continuously they might think I wasn’t doing it at all.

My routes changed as did the locations, people got to recognising me saying hello, it was warming and nice, Yvonne commented on my pictures saying how much she liked them and suggested I post some. From there an idea came from a small spark into what is now a small inferno.

I contacted Love Wymondham (a local Facebook group I use) with an idea. I asked, “if I do some walks, photographing where I’d been with directions and thoughts surrounding the walk, would they put them on their group?”

They responded with a resounding, “yes”.

So that was it, Love Wymondham members have nurtured and helped me, indeed still help me to do what I love. Walking mainly around Wymondham taking photographs as I go, whether it’s down by The Tiffey or as far out as our historic Ketts Oak.

I’ve been called The Wymondham walker, cameraman (a play on my surname), inspirational, even a legend. Apparently I’ve helped people on their journey, whether it’s walking, running or whatever. Everywhere I go in Wymondham I seem to be recognised, stopped for a chat or simply a cheery hello. It’s great for a man with no real friends. Having aspirations to help others, however possible, turned me into a recognised popular person.

I do find talking face to face hard, but people just take me as I am and I can truly say now I’ve actually got some brilliant friends for which I’m eternally grateful. It’s because of my many followers that I’ve managed to carry on. The stats are as follows: weight lost? Now I’m 20 stone meaning I’ve lost 5st 7Lb. I walked 6.5 miles for charity and I’m a very happy, very lucky 65 year old man.

Unfortunately this year I went down with life threatening pneumonia twice and am a lucky survivor. With pneumonia I contracted life threatening sepsis (blood poisoning) twice with the need for a big life saving operation.

I’ve fairly recently broken my lower leg, displaced my ankle greatly, did a job on my ligaments all with severe blisters as a complication. Now the screws that are holding it together have snapped where they pass between the bones making the whole pain thing awful.

In short, I've had a lot of time off. My fantastic Wymondham followers have been great offering all sorts of help and support, it’s been jaw droppingly amazing.

So why am I writing this piece for Wymondham’s Magazine?

It’s simple really. I’m starting afresh and feel it may help people in some way. I intend to write follow-on pieces with pictures of our great town, very often from angles you’ve never seen before as I do find some remarkable places to photograph with my new point and shoot summer and winter cameras. I’ve added a selection of my work and I hope you enjoy them as much as I have enjoyed taking them.

I fully intend to carry on with Love Wymondham as they’ve been amazing and are an amazing group.