£45K pledged for Midnight hospice walk

THE clock struck 12, the heavens opened, and over 600 ladies and specially nominated male walkers donning ponchos, macs and pink bunny ears, set off from Aylesbury College for the fifth Gemstone Midnight Walk in aid of the Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity (FNHC), which early indications show £45k being pledged on the night with money still to come in.

Sue Heath (left) who works at St Joseph’s school, Thame
& Yvette Cundy who runs Kismet Jewellers in Buttermarket, Thame
(Image Derek Pelling)

Although bedraggled, the rain failed to dampen the walkers’ spirits and bunny power prevailed with both ladies and silver ballot place male participants powering on in defiance of the weather. Three energy-boosting pit-stops spread across the 13-mile route proved extremely welcoming for soggy-eared walkers, including Aylesbury Waterside Theatre at mile six, which turned pink for the night. Walkers were re-fuelled and re-energised with water, jelly babies (a walker favourite) and jaffa cakes, with a further pit-stop around mile 10 at the Cotton Wheel, Jackson Road, for 13-mile walkers nearing the finishing line.

The first six milers crossed the finish line around 1.30am with the first 13-milers heading in at just after 3am. Richard Williams of Walton Way, Aylesbury (who had decked his shirt with over 350 Swarovski crystals for the night) was the first male 13-mile walker back, marching in at 3.25am.

A fantastic build-up to the launch saw Katy Brown of Mix96 hosting the stage show helping to entertain the crowd, as well as live music from The Zefrones, singer Sophie Ray and a Cha Cha return from Sian McCarthy & Mark Henderson, who proved why they walked away with the Charity’s ‘Strictly Florence’ 2013 dance competition crown last October at the start of the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Hospice. The walker warm-up was once again provided by Joanna Beardsmore-Dilks of GLOW fitness, who has supported the event for the past four years, which went down a real treat – thankfully just before the rain came down!

“It was an amazing night, despite the weather,” said FNHC’s Karen Shardlow. “It’s the first-time we’ve had rain in five years, but we were prepared with extra marshals in key areas in case of excess water along the route, and spare t-shirts to hand out to walkers who needed a dry layer after completing the challenge. Our walkers were fantastic and weren’t going to let anything stop them from setting off and taking on their Midnight Walk challenge in our Silver Jubilee year!

“On behalf of Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity (FNHC), I would like to say a very big thank you to our walkers, marshals, volunteers, local business sponsors, and to all those supporters who left signs of ‘good luck’ along the road, or waited up with watermelon and sweetie bowls outside their houses – this really did make a massive difference to our ladies, with the weather as it was. We are absolutely thrilled with the £45,000 pledged on the night, which means we have now smashed our fundraising target of £300,000 – the total money raised since the Gemstone Walk started in 2010.”

Karen added: “We will be announcing next year’s date this week, with some early bunny offers, so please dry those pink ears off and put them in a safe place until the Gemstone Midnight Walk returns in 2015.”

For more information visit www.gemstonwalk.co.uk and www.fnhospice.org.uk

SOURCE: Contributed