EXCLUSIVE

by Neil Millard

THERE can't be many people with a smaller carbon footprint than Joan Pick - as she hasn't used any form of motorised transport since 1992.

In fact since 1973 the "energy economist" has got almost everywhere by running or walking.

The last time she went anywhere by a method other than on foot was when she had to get in a hearse to her mother's funeral.

And the only other times in 35 years she has used motorised transport were when she was taken to hospital by ambulance and a handful of train trips to visit her sick mother before she died.

The 67-year-old, from Turnpike Link, East Croydon, admits she is known locally as "the lady who runs everywhere".

But she believes more people need to adopt her extreme way of life if we are to save the planet.

"We know we're using too much energy," she said. "We have to live within the planet's means.

"There is no alternative to a fundamental change in the way we live."

Joan's decision to boycott planes, trains and automobiles came as a scientist in 1973 when working for a Croydon firm of consultants advising the energy industry.

She decided the world's mass-consumption approach to energy was wrong and began setting an example for everyone to follow.

Her days of getting around easily were over and ever since she has only been travelling as far as her legs will take her.

Joan also refuses to cook or heat her home and has not had a holiday in three-and-a-half decades because it would be too far to walk.

She relies on raw foods like vegetables and nuts for her meals and her only excess is boiling a kettle to heat enough water to wash.

"I'm a minimal energy user," she explained.

"I don't expect anybody else to be as resolute as me.

"But I have to experiment with the energy efficient lifestyle to prove it's survivable."

The Morris Minor Millennium she drove until 1972 has been mothballed in her garage ever since.

Her way of life has the added bonus of keeping her fighting fit.

She runs 12 miles every day, which includes a two-hour run every afternoon, a run to the newsagents for her papers in the morning and a half-hour run in the evening.

Her pact means that in the last 16 years she has been no further than Tower Bridge to the north, Tolworth to the west, Reigate and Godstone to the south or Sidcup to the east.

Since 1973 she has run or walked approximately 135,415 miles - the equivalent of nearly five-and-a-half times round the world.

"It's the easiest, cheapest method of keeping fit," she said "People shout at me 'keep on running'. I'm usually stopped and people ask me if I'm the lady who runs everywhere and they ask me why I'm doing it so I give them a little seminar.

"They say I'm an inspiration but they're still in their cars."

As well as the trip to her mother's funeral, Joan had to accept being taken to hospital in an ambulance in 1991 after she dislocated a shoulder.

But she is steadfast in her determination that only such unavoidable emergencies will lead to her using motorised transport again.

She said: "Some people criticise me by saying I ought to get out more but that's one thing you can't say about me - I'm out all the time."

At the start of her campaign to transform the way Britain and the world uses energy she wrote around 100 letters a week to prominent policy makers, scientists and politicians.

Now she has cut down to between three and six a day because she can't afford the postage, but still delivers all her local mail by hand.

Joan's way of life, however, has sadly kept her single as she doesn't believe it will allow for a partner.

"There's never been a prospect of it," she said. "You can't have somebody else around to contradict you."