Charity’s first virtual Star Shine Walk

• 29 April 2020

Arthur Rank Hospice Charity is delighted to announce that it’s Star Shine Walk will still take place this year… becoming a virtual event for the first time ever!

This new version of the popular memory walk, sponsored by the Cambridgeshire Care Home, invites participants to accumulate 20,000 steps between 23 May, and 6 June 2020.  Now in its twelfth year, Arthur Rank Hospice’s annual Star Shine Walk usually brings together in the region of 500 people for the walk, many of whom choose to walk in memory of someone they love. The well-loved event is historically one of the Hospice’s biggest fundraisers, having raised over £375,000 during its eleven-year history – thanks to the enthusiastic sponsorship efforts of the walkers who take part.

Events Officer, Angeline Liles comments: “Anyone can take part, wherever you live! We’re especially thrilled to be able to still offer this special event to our loyal supporters, many of whom take part year after year. The money raised through sponsorship is absolutely vital for ensuring Cambridgeshire’s Hospice can keep caring for those who need our services, which are all free of charge to the 4,000+ patients we care for each year. At this time our normal fundraising activities have been hit hard, and yet it’s a time when we need to raise more funds than ever.”

20,000 steps is the equivalent of the 10 mile route originally planned for the event, which would have wound around the iconic streets of Cambridge. It is a significant challenge but has been designed so that it can be achieved in line with the Government’s latest guidelines around exercise.

The change of plan has been extremely well-received: “What a wonderful idea! The whole event is important to the people that do it, but what is crucial is that the Hospice gets the money to do all the amazing things it does. […] I am up for it and, god willing, will be doing my steps with the promise of a bit of ‘dosh’ from my friends and family.”

Participants have expressed how grateful they are to be able to support the Hospice –  which continues to deliver vital front-line care to the local community in Cambridge, the Fens and in people’s own homes across Cambridgeshire – despite the challenging circumstances of COVID-19:

“It would have been our first time and we were doing it in honour of our Grandad who we lost at the end of last year, after he had been treated in the Hospice and received such great care at home in his final weeks.As it meant so much to us, me and my sister have decided we will complete the 20,000 steps throughout the day of Saturday 23rd May when the walk would have gone ahead. We will adhere to any social distancing measures in place at the time! We will take a route through the village (several times probably!!!) down a small country road where our Grandad drove up & down several times daily to the farm he worked on for many years. Not quite the way we had imagined the event going, but we’re determined to keep raising as much money as we possibly can!”

Star Shine Walk would normally raise around £40,000 each year. The Charity have set the ambitious target of having 400 people take part, each raising £50 in sponsorship from friends, family, neighbours and colleagues, in the hope that at least £20,000 can still be raised.

Judith Wroe, Care Home Manager at Cambridgeshire Care Home, explains why it was an easy decision for them to continue their support as the event’s headline sponsor: “We are proud to be sponsoring Star Shine Walk this year. The Hospice plays an important part supporting our residents, families and many within the local community, along with teaching opportunities for our staff learning development. Many of us here at The Cambridgeshire Care Home have been touched by the great work that they do in a professional and sometimes personal capacity, making our choice to sponsor such a worthy charity an easy one.”

Later in the year, the Charity will host an official Star Shine Celebration Evening at its Shelford Bottom home – where finishers’ medals, belated hot bacon rolls(!), memory arch photos and the recognition of individual and collaborative achievements will be the order of the day!

To find out more or register to take part as an individual, a family or a household, visit starshinenightwalk.co.uk.

If you would like to support Star Shine Walk but are unable to take part, you are welcome to donate to the event or a participating team justgiving.com/campaign/starshinewalk2020.

To explore other ways you may be able to support this year’s virtual version of Star Shine Walk, please email us at fundraising@arhc.org.uk or call the events team on 01223 675888.