Joining Woking & Sam Beare Hospices’ ladies-only 8-mile Midnight Walk – sponsored by Trident Honda and Freedom Leisure – on Friday 19 May is a great chance to raise your own health levels while you raise funds for the hospices.
Jackie Waite, Studio Co-ordinator and Exercise Referral Instructor at Freedom Leisure at Woking Leisure Centre, has highlighted some of the health benefits of walking for participants:
* Improves cardio vascular fitness and health. * Can help to maintain bone density and prevent against osteoporosis. * Increases calorie expenditure aiding in weight management. * Can help to de-stress and improve psychological well-being.
Freedom Leisure will be supporting participants with a warm up session with their training team at the start of the walk. Freedom Leisure will also be giving walkers a one day guest pass valid for activities including gym, swimming, and fitness classes, and offering a reduced price for a range of fitness classes before the event.
The Midnight Walk will start at 8pm with a welcome and registration session, leaving Woking Leisure Centre at 10pm and following an eight mile route back to the centre.
As part of the ‘hospice hero’ theme, walkers can buy a bright pink ‘hero’ cape through Woking & Sam Beare Hospices. They can customise their cape at home beforehand or at a ‘style my cape’ stall during the welcome session at the beginning of the walk, to wear with the free event T-shirt featuring event mascot ‘Owliver’. The now-traditional bunny ears will also be available to buy at the event.
More than 900 walkers raised more than £120,000 for the hospices in 2016. This year the aim is to recruit 1,000 walkers to mark the hospices’ 21st year providing end-of-life care and support to more than 1,400 patients and their families across North Surrey.
Funds raised by walkers will go towards the charity’s work within the hospice itself and towards the 70% of care delivered in people’s own homes. Money raised will also support the completion of a new state-of-the-art hospice, which will have 20 en-suite bedrooms, day care centre, complementary therapy and counselling facilities, and a café. It will provide a centre of excellence and resources for staff and patients alike.
Tell us who your Hospice Hero is @WSBHospices #HospiceHeroes. To find out more and to register for the Midnight Walk please visit www.wsb-midnightwalk.co.uk. Registration is £15 per person and walkers can be aged 11 and above (walkers aged under 18 must be accompanied by an adult).
The Midnight Walk is also sponsored by Trident Honda, which has supported Woking & Sam Beare Hospices during its 21 years of providing end-of-life care. In 2016 Trident Honda committed to be a major sponsor for the charity over three years.
About Woking & Sam Beare Hospice
Woking & Sam Beare Hospice is a patient-centred charity that delivers specialist palliative care to adult patients of all ages who have life-limiting and terminal illnesses. We cover the North West Surrey region, providing free of charge holistic care and support services for patients, their families and carers. We care for over 1,400 patients both in our hospice and in their own homes (where over 70% of our care is delivered), enabling patient choice and the best quality of life.
We care for adults of all ages with a wide range of life limiting conditions such as cancer, heart disease, Motor Neurone Disease (MND), chronic pulmonary conditions, Parkinson’s disease and Multiple Sclerosis (MS). We help patients to manage their symptoms, which are often complex and why they require the expertise of our Clinical Nurse Specialists and specialist doctors.
Our services enable us to offer our patients holistic care, which means we offer practical, emotional, social and spiritual support as well as managing their medical needs. We offer day care services where patients receive assessments, treatments and therapies, as well as emotional and spiritual support. We also deliver counselling for our patients and their families, including child bereavement services and school support programmes.
We are a charity, and while we receive some government funding, around 75% of what we deliver is funded through our charity shops and fundraising activities. We could not do this without the generosity of all of our supporters, volunteers and the local community.
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