Sun shines on Walk for Life

The sun shone as they enjoyed a pleasant 12km stroll that started at Paper Mill Lock in Little Baddow or a longer 24km hike from Heybridge Basin. Both routes finished at the car park of Teledyne e2v in Waterhouse Lane, Chelmsford.

Stefan Todman, aged 18 from Danbury, was one of the first to finish the 24km route. He said, “I would definitely recommend Walk for Life to others. I liked the scenery, it was good exercise and I’m happy to support Farleigh Hospice.”

Carole Randall and colleagues Keith Larkin and Adam Birchweaver from the Essex County Council Energy and Low Carbon Team completed Walk for Life as part of their ‘A Million Steps in May Challenge’ for Farleigh. She said, “We had a brilliant time. Walk for Life is a very well organised, highly accessible event that we would recommend to anyone.”

Many people were taking part in memory of a relative or friend who we have cared for and were kindly raising money for us.

Claire Barker from Maldon completed the 12km ramble with five others in memory of her husband Paul. He spent time in our care for pain management and we have provided bereavement support to Claire. She said, “The route was very well-organised with encouraging marshals and you could go at your own pace. Paul had amazing care from Farleigh and we’ve raised £600 so far.”

We also cared for Tom Booth-Woodger’s mum, Marion, for two years, including physiotherapy and helping with her medication, before she spent the last three weeks of her life in our Inpatient Unit. The five members of Team Marion came from as far as London and Wales to walk the ‘absolutely brilliant’ 24km route, raising over £2,500.

A group of 14 took part as Claire’s Pink Parade, walking 12km in memory of Claire Winyard who received ‘amazing care’ at home. They have raised over £2,000.

You can see more photos of Walk for Life on our Facebook page.

Walk for Life is an important fundraising event for Farleigh Hospice. Debbie de Boltz, our Head of Fundraising, said, ”A big thank you to everybody who took part and made Walk for Life such a special event. Farleigh Hospice is a charity that couldn’t exist without the support of our local community and so we are very grateful to everyone who asked their friends and family to sponsor them or gave a donation.

“We hope to have raised over £50,000 today which will make such a difference to the people we help. It is days like these, when we see such a wonderful number of people coming together to support their local hospice, that make us realise how much we mean to our local community.”

Walk for Life will be back on Sunday 11 May 2025! For the latest information and to register your interest in next year’s event, click here.