Starlight Stroll Set to Raise £50,000 for Hospice

July 4, 2010

Starlight Stroll, Birmingham St Mary’s Hospice’s biggest fundraising event of the year, is on course to raise a staggering £50,000, delighted fundraisers revealed today.

With 423 women pounding the pavements through Saturday night in aid of the City’s only independent adult hospice, that makes it the most successful night-time sponsored walk Birmingham St Mary’s has staged to date.

The Hospice is set to smash last year’s Midnight Walk total of £13,000 after attracting more than three times as many participants.

Community Fundraiser Charlotte Sudbury, who organised Starlight Stroll, was overjoyed with the turnout.

She said: “It was an absolutely fantastic night. We managed to more than treble the number of participants of last year’s night-time walk and double the previous year’s, so you can imagine that everyone at Birmingham St Mary’s is literally over the moon.

“Crucially, we’ve raised a tremendous amount of money, which will be used directly for patients and their families. This is a brilliant achievement for us in terms of fundraising and is a success that we’ll be working hard to build on.

“Starlight Stroll has really taken off this year and is fast becoming a firm fixture in Birmingham’s annual events calendar. I’m already looking forward to seeing everyone again at next year’s Starlight Stroll as well as a few more.

“I would like to thank all the women who gave up their Saturday night for this great local cause and the volunteers who helped run the event from the registration team to the marshals.”

The event began at 10pm at the University of Birmingham in Edgbaston and followed a route that took in Harborne, Moseley, Kings Heath and Selly Park.

Starlight Stroll was launched by Birmingham’s Lady Mayoress Gillian Gregory following a warm-up session by a team of personal trainers from Fitness First, who also supplied the bottled water for the event. BBC Midlands Today presenter Suzanne Virdee, who has helped promote Starlight Stroll over the past few months, was also on hand to wave walkers off.

One of the dedicated Strollers on the night was Janice Stirrup, who has raised £1,100 in sponsorship. Janice has been a dedicated supporter of Birmingham St Mary’s since her late husband Geoff was cared for by the Hospice earlier this year.

She said: “The Hospice has been brilliant to us, so we feel it’s really important to show our thanks and do our bit to make sure its wonderful services can continue.”

Janice added: “My daughter Lucy and I had a fab night and we’re really grateful to everyone who sponsored us. It really is a superb cause and we’ll definitely be doing it again next year, the atmosphere was amazing. It was a fantastic night.”

Another Starlight Stroller was Deborah Maxwell, manager of Birmingham St Mary’s Hospice shop in Rubery. She completed Starlight Stroll with a large group of friends and her twin daughters Jodie and Faye, aged 12.

Deborah said “We’ve had a brilliant night, it couldn’t have gone better and the girls have really enjoyed themselves.”

First over the 2010 Starlight Stroll finish line were four sisters Kam Bola and Kiran, Angena and Raman Devi. They did the walk in just under 2 hours 45 minutes.

Kam, of Harborne, said: “We had a really good night, we love taking part in these kinds of events but this is the first one where we’ve been the first over the finish line. It’s a fantastic local cause and I think we’d definitely do it again next year. We have friends who’ve received the kind of care Birmingham St Mary’s provides, so we’re keen to do what we can to help.”

Friends Gee Boora, of Moseley, and Tina Uppal, of Great Barr, said they had also got the bug for charity challenges: “When we heard about Starlight Stroll we thought we just had to take part,” said Gee, adding, “I’ve done a couple of marathons and other events and we really enjoy doing them. This one has been really good, at 10 miles it’s just the right distance.”

Fundraisers were also wowed by the large amounts of money various Starlight Stroll groups had raised. A team of four women from insurance company Ecclesiastical collected £2,000 in sponsorship after their employer matched the £1,000 they had already raised.

Sam Blore, of Ecclesiastical, said: “Birmingham St Mary’s Hospice is one of our chosen charities so we’re really keen to raise as much as we can. We’d already raised £1,000 but it was great to learn that our company was going to double it for us.”

The final walkers to complete Starlight Stroll were friends Chris Liggins and Sonia Brown from Moseley, who crossed the finish line at around 3am.

Chris was walking in memory of her late fiancé who was cared for by the Hospice some years ago. She said: “I’d found out my fiancé’s photograph and was reminiscing earlier this year and then I saw an advert for Starlight Stroll and thought I’d just got to do it. I am really glad to have taken part.”

Starlight Stroll in 2009 attracted 125 women raising £13,000 and in 2008 there were 173 participants, who brought in £19,000 for the Hospice.

Since its launch in 1979, Birmingham St Mary’s Hospice has cared for tens of thousands of people with life-limiting illnesses, such as cancer, motor neurone disease and MS.

With around 52 percent of the Hospice’s budget reliant on public goodwill, community fundraising is crucial to ensuring its highly specialised services can continue to be offered to the people of Birmingham and Sandwell.

In addition to a 25-bed Inpatient Unit, Birmingham St Mary’s boasts a 20-place Day Hospice and provides community care to people who wish to stay in their own homes.

The Hospice also supports relatives with bereavement preparation, physiotherapy tuition and counselling in addition to many other services.

Annual running costs stand at £6.3 million, with around £1 million being raised in the Hospice’s shops and £2.7 million via community fundraising events. The remainder comes from the NHS.

Birmingham St Mary’s nurses, often referred to by patients and relatives as ‘angels’, are renowned for going that extra mile to ensure people with terminal illnesses enjoy the best possible quality of life.

Starlight Stroll Set to Raise £50,000 for Hospice

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