Ady Dayman & Conor O’Grady
BBC News, Leicester
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A woman who travelled across the South West Coastal Path with her terminally ill husband has said a film depicting their journey took her “right back” to those difficult moments.
Raynor Winn, a writer who grew up on a farm in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, said a financial dispute meant she had lost her dream home in Wales in 2013 just days after her husband Moth was diagnosed with Corticobasal Degeneration, a rare brain disease.
With nothing to lose, the couple set off on a 630-mile trek from Somerset to Dorset, via Devon and Cornwall.
Their journey across England’s largest uninterrupted path has now been made into a film – The Salt Path – featuring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs.
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“As we were preparing to leave the house, and the bailiffs were knocking at the door, we were hiding under the stairs. We were not ready to go,” Mrs Winn said.
“It was in those last moments that I saw a book about someone who had walked the coastal path with their dog.
“In that desperate time, it just seemed like the most obvious thing to do. All we wanted to do was pack our bags and take a walk.”
Five years on from the adventure, in 2018, Mrs Winn released her memoir entitled The Salt Path.
It received nationwide acclaim and was shortlisted for the 2018 Wainwright Prize, an award that celebrates travel-based writing.
She said: “We had nowhere to go. We knew that when we stepped out of the door, we were going to be homeless.
“Moth’s illness had no treatment, or no cure. I was drawn to following a line on the map. It gave us a purpose, and that’s what it was all about.”
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Just a few months after her book was published, Mrs Winn said she was approached by a producer and filming of The Salt Path started in the summer of 2023.
“It makes no sense. I remember the day we met. There was a knock at the door, and there was Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs outside.
“They told me to put the kettle on. That’s not what is supposed to happen to a girl from Melton Mowbray,” she said.
Mrs Winn – who continues to fundraise alongside her husband for research into his illness – said the film had taken her “straight back to those emotions that were so difficult”.
“The producer and director have created something that’s sparse in dialogue.
“It’s huge in emotion and it urges anyone to focus on the now. Just focus on now and all will turn out differently tomorrow,” she said.
