2:00pm Thursday 11th March 2010
By Hayley Court
STAND shoulder to shoulder with us this summer and raise money for Prospect Hospice.
That is the message from bus driver Christine Jefferies who, along with a band of close friends and colleagues, will be joining Prospect’s Starlight Walk in memory of her beloved husband Brian.
The 10k or 15k walk will be held on June 26 with more than 600 women expected to take part.
Christine, from Ermin Street, Stratton is now calling on women to join her in a bid to make the walk Prospect’s biggest event yet.
“Prospect is such a wonderful, wonderful place,” she said. “I can’t even put it into words. They let Brian die in peace and with dignity which, when you have been through all he’d been through, was the most important thing in the world.”
For Christine, 54, the walk will be all the more poignant as falls on the day Brian, 55, lost his brave fight to prostate and bone cancer last year.
“He tried so hard for two years but in the end it was time to give up and Prospect was the best place to do that,” she said.
“This walk will be so important because I will be thinking about him all the way around and how he left us peacefully and without feeling any pain, all thanks to the wonderful people at Prospect Hospice.
“I can’t thank them enough and no-one could ever do enough for them and all they do for us.”
The Starlight Walk, launched three years ago, attracts around 700 women every year.
Christine is hoping that at least 1,000 women will create a sea of orange across the town when they don their Starlight t-shirts and walk from New College, off Queens Drive, and out across Wiltshire’s paths and cycleways.
At the end of the night hundreds of balloons will be released in memory of a loved one.
“I wanted to do it last year but Brian was just too poorly,” said Christine.
“I think as many people as possible should do this walk and make just a small gesture to a charity that does a so much for people in Swindon.”
While the challenge is restricted to ladies only, men are more than welcome to lend their support by marshalling the course.
It costs £4.5 million to keep Prospect Hospice going, three quarters of which must be found through donations and fundraising. Last year’s walk raised £65,000, which supported the hospice inhouse care, day hospice and Prospect@Home, a service that allows people to die peacefully in the comfort of their own homes while being supported by Prospect’s nurses.
Sheryl Crouch, Prospect’s head of fundraising, said: “We are a local hospice, reliant on the support of our community, to run all of our services this year it will cost £4.5m, three quarters of which we need to raise ourselves.
Early bird registration runs until April 30 will be £12 per person. From May onwards entry will cost £15 per person.
To find out more, or to register, visit www. prospect-hospice.net/starlight or call the hospice on 01793 813355.
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