HUNDREDS of men and women clad in the green of Prospect Hospice took to the streets of Swindon on Saturday evening for the annual Starlight Walk.

Covering courses of 10 or 15km, groups of friends, colleagues and family members set off from the County Ground at around 8.30pm to walk through the night in aid of a charity close to the hearts of so many people in the town.

Genevieve Arney, events and community manager at Prospect, said: “Starlight is such a lovely event. This is our tenth anniversary, it’s a special occasion.

“There are lots of people taking part tonight who have walked it year on year. There is a great atmosphere, a party spirit and it always raises loads of money for us.

“Over ten years it’s raised over half a million pounds for the hospice. All of the money goes directly towards supporting our nursing care.”

A total of 550 people signed up to take part in this year’s event, mostly ladies but also some men involved too.

Among them was Elaine Scott, a practice nurse from Lawn Medical Centre, walking alongside fellow staff in memory of colleague Lucy Etherington, died from breast cancer three years ago, aged just 49.

Lucy, who was also a practice nurse, was supported by Prospect’s nurses.

Elaine said: “This is my third time taking part. It’s just an opportunity to remember people we’ve lost.

“Everyone is touched by cancer – whether it’s family, friends, patients or neighbours.

“Everybody will experience it and events like this bring people together. It’s good fun too, we’ve had lots of toots on the way down.”

It’s hard to find people in Swindon who aren’t aware of the work that the team at Prospect do – almost everyone has either had direct involvement with some receiving care or knows someone close to them who has.

Carla Tait, 29, from Covingham, got to know Prospect well when her father David Peers fell ill with cancer. “My dad died in January 2010,” she said. “He was cared for at Prospect for about seven months.

“I quite liked going there to see him, they make you feel really welcome and everyone is happy.

“He spent Christmas there too – it was nice for the families.”

Carla was walking with her mum, her auntie and cousin, all taking part in the Starlight Walk for the first time.

“We’ve called our group the First Timers,” she explained. “I’ve wanted to do it since my dad died but I’ve always either been on holiday or pregnant so this was the first chance.”

Most of the walkers were recognisable by their bright green T-shirts as they set off to cover the distance around the town, but one group who stood out in their own personalised blue tops, and fluorescent green tutus, was the 30-strong team from Gibbs Surfacing.

Sue Day, the finance manager at Gibbs, said: “We’ve all been touched by something that has happened at the Prospect.

“We’ve all either had friends or family cared for at the hospice, recently our colleague’s husband was looked after there before he died.

“We felt it was a local charity and that we should get behind it and try to raise as much money as possible.

“I’ve done the walk twice before and I’m really looking forward to it. We want to try and do these sort of events as a regular thing, we really want to get behind a good cause as a company. “We’re hoping to raise more than £2,000.”

Vicky Gibbs, the finance and HR director at the firm, said the company had paid the sign-up fee for all their participants, meaning any money they raised went straight to the charity.

It’s an approach that was applauded by the organisers who hope to see the involvement of big company teams continue to grow for future events.