10:16am Friday 3rd July 2009
By Reader's letter
In the short hours of darkness between midnight and dawn on June 20, 450 intrepid walkers (and plenty of dogs!) set out from York College in Tadcaster Road in York to walk six-and-a-half miles on the second St Leonard’s Hospice Midnight Walk.
It is really great that so many people can leave their beds to follow a route through the city – and get sponsorship for doing so – in aid of the hospice. Last year, our first Midnight Walk raised the magnificent sum of £25,000 and, though it’s still too early to have a final total, we hope at least to match that this year. So well done to everyone who put their best foot forward for us.
Thank you, too, to everyone who helped us make the evening a success, including York College for hosting the start and finish, and the Spurriergate Centre for opening their doors for a welcome break at around the halfway point of the walk. We are very grateful. Thank you, too, to the good-natured people of York out and about in the small hours, who took an interest in us and responded with humour – if some bemusement – to the walk.
The Midnight Walk is now firmly established as one of our major fundraising activities, which helps us towards the £2.8 million we need to raise each year to keep providing our services to local people with life-threatening illnesses. Why not join us next year, to celebrate the hospice’s Silver Jubilee? Put the date – June 19, 2010 – in your diary now.
Janet Morley, director of fundraising, St Leonard’s Hospice, Tadcaster Road, York.
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