Ladies-only midnight walk raises over £20k for Springhill Hospice

Ladies getting ready for the start of the Midnight Walk

Ladies from across the borough turned out in full force for this year’s Springhill Hospice Midnight Walk – and over £20,000 sponsor money has been pledged for the charity.

Around 170 ladies took part in the walk, sponsored by HSBC and supported by Link4Life on Friday 23 September.

At the stroke of midnight the ladies set off from Middleton Arena and headed for Heywood, via Bowlee and Birch before returning to Middleton via Castleton and Slattocks. Those who didn’t fancy the full 13 miles were able to do the 6 mile walk to Heywood and finish there to be bussed back to Middleton.

Sarah Ford, Income Services Lead at the Hospice, said: “The atmosphere on the night was superb again with lots of laughter and, between them, a fabulous £21,000 pledged by our walkers. We are fully anticipating this figure to build up as time goes by. Thank you to each and every one of them!”

Mrs Ford, added: “There are so many people to thank - staff at Middleton Arena and Heywood Civic Centre for remaining open until the early hours, my colleagues and volunteers from the Hospice who manned registration at both venues and helped with stewarding and serving food and refreshments; managers at the Wilton Hotel, the White Hart, the Success to the Plough and the Norton Grange who very kindly agreed for our walkers to use their toilet facilities; all the static stewards and bikers from the MT Heads Biking Club who made sure our walkers stayed safe throughout the event.”