Dear Pennine Way: I’d like to wish you a happy 60th birthday. Many thousands have trodden along you, and so have I. You’ve brought us blisters but also beautiful views, buoyed spirits and a renewed sense of belonging.

I got the idea to walk the Pennine Way – which on 24 April turns 60 – after being racially abused on a TransPennine train journey. A man asked me if I had a British passport, threatened to set me on fire and told me to go back to where I’m from. The latter hit a nerve: I am from the North of England and proud of it. One day I was looking at a map of that journey and saw the Pennine mountains rising up. I zoomed closer and saw a place called Hope, and I determined that I’d walk through the glorious place I’m from and try to channel hope throughout.

Walking was transformative to my physical and mental health. I’d been suffering from anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder – racism and inequality affect mental health. Walking was ameliorative as I focused my attention on the wonders of wildlife, burned away stress by the River Ribble and felt my heart beat louder as I hiked on up through the Yorkshire Dales, stopping to marvel at the view from Pen-y-ghent as the clouds began to clear.

I walked along the “backbone” of the country – as the Pennines are known due to their astonishing limestone cliff formations – as a way of showing backbone myself: I won’t let racial abuse stop me adventuring in a country where I belong.

My journey was inspired by the Manchester Ramblers from my home town, who walked against exclusion in the Kinder Scout mass........

© The Guardian