1,000 ladies made it a Night to Remember and raised £112,000!

Around 1,000 women walkers braved the blustery winds and showers on Saturday 16 June 2012 to take part in the St Barnabas House Night to Remember midnight walk, raising an incredible £112,000.

The hospice's annual Night to Remember walk started in 2008, and over the past four years over 4,000 local ladies have raised in excess of £500,000 for St Barnabas.

The women started assembling at Worthing Leisure Centre at 10pm and were able to enjoy plenty of entertainment with music from Malcolm Gray of Retrospect Event Sound, massages from Mirage Beauty, having their pictures taken by Helen Tinner Photography and their faces decorated by Ace Face-painting, plus a raffle for a huge cuddly dog, pamper tombola and a very energetic warm up by Jo Clarke.

Mayor of Worthing, Councillor Charles James, and Mayoress, Pauline James, set the ladies off at midnight, with the help of lead walkers Jo Clarke, Vicky Walker, James Millen and Kristina Pollard, and back walkers, Gareth Goddard, Phil Christian and Adam Scott.

As always, many of the ladies were walking in memory of loved ones; Ann Steddon, walked in memory of her husband, Jeff, who worked at St Barnabas; Louise Moss, Jessica Barrott, Karyn Cranfield, Laura Griggs and Tania Taylor from Insight, The Rotaract Club of Littlehampton, walked in memory of Sherry Lorraine, Jessica's dance teacher and choreographer for Stage Door Theatre Company; Nikki Manchee walked in memory of her Mum, Sandie Betley, who was a Community Nurse at St Barnabas and died at the hospice 6 years ago, while her Dad, Eddie, spent the night as one of the many marshals keeping the ladies safe on the route.

There were also lots of groups taking part, including the 26-strong Bruce's Babes, all carrying pink balloons and led by Kate Henwood, whose husband, Bruce, is being cared for by St Barnabas; the Georgie 12 were a group of female family members walking in memory of their Mum and Auntie, Eileen George, whose last wish was to die at St Barnabas. Other groups included the Northbrook Trekkers, Tate's Posse, the Sussex Party Shop Girls and the St Barnabas Hospice at Home team.

As always, the ladies took the opportunity to accessorise their pink Night to Remember t-shirts, with pink wigs, flashing bunny ears, cowboy hats and tutus. In addition, there were birthday celebrations for Lois Warren who turned 65 on the night.

Team Lindum were the first ladies back from the gruelling 13.1 mile route, with all the ladies back safely with five and a half hours. This year, there was a new seven mile route which around 300 of the ladies completed within 3 hours.

The hospice had some very generous support from local businesses and organisations, including Worthing Leisure Centre and Worthing Borough Council for providing the venue and allowing them to hold the event, REAC for assisting with marshalling, Edgars Water for providing water for the walkers, Morrisons for donating 1,000 bananas, GlaxoSmithKline for providing Lucozade drinks and Liz Kane from Mars for providing 1,000 Mars Bars.

Said Joanna Carden, Event Organiser, 'We would like to say a huge and heartfelt thank you to all the wonderful ladies for turning out on such a windy night and raising so much money for St Barnabas. This is the equivalent of providing all the care services at St Barnabas, both at the hospice and out in the community, for 10 days! The atmosphere was great and to hear some of the ladies' stories was truly inspiring. Thank you too to all the local companies for their generosity and to everyone who worked so hard to make it a Night to Remember, especially to our 150 volunteers who looked after our ladies during the night - we certainly couldn't have done it without them!'

If you are inspired to take part in next year's Night to Remember midnight walk, it will take place on Saturday 22 June 2013 and registration is open now at www.nighttoremember.org.uk