Walkers raise £24,000 for local hospices

Representatives from the four hospices with the cheque for a staggering £24,000

Walkers at the Hike4Hospices 2011 event

Four local hospices have just received a donation of £6,000 each from the organisers of the 2011 Hike4Hospices walk.

The cheques were presented to representatives of St Wilfrid's (Chichester), St Barnabas House (Worthing), Martlets (Hove) and St Peter & St James (Chailey) by Colin Crookes, Chairman of the Hike4Hospices Management Committee, at a reception held at the Chatsworth Hotel, Worthing on Friday 17 February.

Hike4Hospices is an annual organised sponsored walk along 43 miles of the South Downs Way between Lewes and Goodwood. The event is spread over two days and consists of six shorter sections. Participants can choose to walk one or more sections over the weekend and even undertake the complete route.

The walk is organised and supported by Rotarians from many of the Rotary Clubs in Sussex. 2011 was the 5th Hike4Hospices event and since the first walk in 1987, over £175,000 has been raised in support of the four hospices.

In presenting the cheques, Colin Crookes said, 'We are delighted to support four local hospices through this event. Hospices provide much-needed services to their local communities and many of us in the local Rotary Clubs know of someone to have benefitted from the care that the hospices provide. We also know the challenges that hospices face in raising the funds need to deliver their caring services.'

In a joint statement, a representative of the four hospices said, 'We are all extremely grateful to those involved in organising this annual event on our behalf and our thanks go to all those who have taken part in the previous five walks and for the money that has been raised. Hike4Hospices is now established in all our event calendars and we are all looking forward to the 2012 walk in August.'

Hike4Hospices 2012 will take place on the week of 18 and 19 August .You can register online on www.hike4hospices.co.uk or pick up a registration leaflet from any one of the four hospices.