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The Love of Dance

Tuesday 24 June 2008

Sponsored Walk






Sponsored walk in aid of the Hospice of St. Francis – Berkhamsted. I wanted to participate in this walk in 2007, but never got around to organising myself. So this year when the flyer came out I took the plunge and enlisted. However I didn’t want to do it alone so I got the girls from work to join me. Altogether there were seven of us.
Three others from work, Fiona, Chris and Claire along with Fiona’s daughters Lorna and Emma and an amazing lady called Rita, who has climbed Everest!! And boy couldn’t she walk!!
We had all prepared for the walk. Out every Sunday in all weathers, thunderstorms included. Walking at night we didn’t practice, but although it was dark we were still able to see quite clearly. We set off at around 12 midnight and returned some three hours forty minutes later – or thereabouts. However the younger members of our group, Emma, Lorna and Rita arrived back twenty minutes before us.
At the beginning of the walk it was warm and dry. In fact we had all worn a second t-shirt underneath our ‘Walk with the Stars’ t-shirt by the time we’d reached Berkhamsted from Hemel Hempstead we were all too hot. We slipped off our under shirts and headed off nibbling on our bars of chocolate and sipping our water. We’d gone about 500 yards when the heavens opened and we got drenched. There was a quick struggle with back packs and waterproofs and we were heading back to Hemel Hempstead. It is a strange thing, but the walk back appeared to be much easier to do. I don’t know why, I guess it was the call of a hot cup of tea that made us walk faster.
My pity was with those we passed going back that hadn’t yet made it to Berkhamsted sports centre, but were still just entering Berkhamsted town. They were soaked and still had a long way to go.
Walking into the school hall after the walk was great. You received a round of applause and after registering, got a medal and a leaflet telling us how stretch out over the next few days. We had bacon rolls, I just had bacon, and a lovely hot cup of tea. We took a few pictures of ourselves and
We set off to our cars, more walking, and as we did, it poured down again. Our thoughts were with those struggling through the second downpour. We were soon safe and dry in the car and heading home. Again past ladies still walking.
It was a great evening. One of challenges and self achievements. I’m glad I did it, and although we all ached the next day, we felt that we had achieved something special. Altogether I think we raised around £700 and the total so far from the hospice has been £170,000.00 a great amount.
You can still donate if you want to, just go to http://www.justgiving.com/susanfranklin or http://www.justgiving.com/christinebayliss or http://www.justgiving.com/clairehughes10 or http://www.justgiving.com/emmaandrita
For more information about the hospice of St. Francis go to their website: http://www.stfrancis.org.uk/index.htm
Thank you for reading this and for all your support.
Susan

4 comments:

Oscar Windsor-Smith said...

Well done Susan and friends. A terrific effort, in spite of the weather.

Now you can relax at Winchester, maybe? :)

Cheers

Oscar

Susan said...

Hi Oscar thanks for popping by and for your sponsorship. It was indeed good fun, exhausting but a challenge one I will do agian!
Winchester should be good too, I've contacted a couple of people who will be there and have said we must catch up, so that is hopeful. However I did have another rejection yesterday, Wednesday. Off it goes again I'm trying to keep them on rubber bands so I've always got something out there.

Jo said...

Well done on finishing the walk and raising so much for a great cause. Hope you have recovered.

Anonymous said...

Well done Susan! Now give yourself a pat on the back and put your feet up!

Jackie