Terrific turnout for Sunflower Walk

Nearly 500 fundraisers brightened the grey skies over Virginia Water Lake at our Sunflower Walk on Saturday (20 May).

Raising more than £30,000 for our palliative and end-of-life care services, the annual event offers supporters the chance to walk their choice of 13k, 6.5k or 4k routes. Plumbing systems company, John Guest, sponsored the event for the fourth year running and entered a team.

Alison Evans, Thames Hospice Head of Community, Events & Corporate Fundraising, said: "£30,000 is a huge amount of money; to put it into perspective, its enough to pay for a Hospice Nurse for a year. We have such amazing supporters, many of whom come back to The Sunflower Walk every year, and we would like to thank them to for enabling us to continue caring for our community. It was lovely to see so many familiar faces and welcome new ones, as well as having the incredible ongoing support from John Guest we hope to see you all again next year.

Staff and their families from Windsor-based airline food solutions company, En Route International, spent the morning walking in memory of their colleague, Gavin. He was cared for by the Hospice and the 80-strong team has raised more than £6,000 and counting in sponsorship. Alison Lessmann, Managing Director at En Route, said: "Gavin was one of life's lovely people. He was always cheerful, kind, helpful and smiling. Even during his treatment, he remained positive and fought with an inordinate amount of courage. En Route took part in The Sunflower Walk as a chance to come together and give something back to Thames Hospice, who did such a wonderful job of caring for Gavin and his family in their time of need."