COLLEAGUES of a well-loved athlete and accountant who died at the age of just 43 have announced that a fundraising campaign they set up in her name has already hit its target and is now set to be extended.

Staff at Blackburn based PM+M Solutions for Business first set up the fundraising challenge in memory of Faye Holden who died from cancer at Pendleside Hospice in June of this year.

The team originally planned to collectively run, walk, jump, cycle, swim, horse ride, roller skate and skateboard 3,320 miles – the equivalent of the distance between Blackburn and New York – in Faye’s memory and to raise money for the hospice that cared for her in her final months but have been amazed to find they have already smashed this target.

Managing director Jane Parry said: “Everyone at PM+M has really got behind the challenge which has been amazing.

“We're absolutely over the moon to have achieved our initial target within the first month so we wanted to build on that success.

“We really want to make Faye proud and raise as much money as possible for Pendleside Hospice.”

In response the team now plans to complete another 3,320 and raise yet more money for the hospice.

Faye had been a well-known member of Pendle Athletics Club, where she competed in cross country runs, long jumps and track races and had herself raised money for the hospice in the past by swimming the length of the English Channel.

As such, the PM+M team feel that there could not be a more fitting way to honour her legacy and they will find an extremely grateful recipient in Pendleside Hospice.

On average, it costs £1,965 per day for someone to be an in-patient at the hospice, with yearly running costs totalling over £4 million and only 22% of grant funding coming from the NHS.

This means that the hospice needs to raise over £3 million each year from charitable donations to keep their doors open, a difficult challenge in an era in which the coronavirus pandemic has severely limited fundraising operations.

To make a donation, go to: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/pm-m-solutions-for-business-llp.