Get walking for fun and funds


DOING a charity walk is a fantastic way to support your favourite good cause while getting active in the outdoors. Thousands of people will be getting out and about in the Mid-Kent area this year to raise much-needed money for charity and there are lots of stunning walks to choose from. Charity walkers come in all shapes and sizes and whether you’re a complete newcomer, an experienced trekker, or a fancy dress fanatic, there’s a chance for you to have fun and raise vital funds. To help you get to the starting line, here are some of the major events.


April Go Dotty Rise and Shine Walk, Sunday, April 28, 7am registration, 8am start, Brands Hatch In aid of Demelza Hospice Care for Children, this walk is the highlight of the charity’s annual Go Dotty week, so the organisers hope all those who sign up will get dressed up in dots. The charity is raising money to give short breaks to families who really need its help. They get up early and you’re


being asked to do the same to help raise money by walking the famous race track at Brands Hatch. Choose either one or two laps of the 1.2 mile track. Tickets cost £18 per adult, £5 for a child and £40 for a family of four. The price includes the walk, entry to the race day at Brands Hatch, breakfast, access to stalls and entertainment and a Go Dotty celebration wristband. Book online at www.demelza.org.uk or call 01795 845288


24 Mid Kent Living


May Bluebell Walk, Sunday, May 5, all day, Harrietsham SUPPORTERS, friends, volunteers and staff of the Heart of Kent Hospice at Aylesford pull on their walking boots to take part in the annual Bluebell Walk on the first Sunday of May and have been doing so for 26 years. The walk starting at Harrietsham Village Hall follows a stunningly pretty


June Kent Pink Ribbonwalk, Saturday, June 8, 9.15am, Leeds Castle Leeds Castle, ‘the loveliest castle in the world’ is the perfect backdrop as the start and finish of this new Pink Ribbonwalk in aid of Breast Cancer Care. Walkers can choose the 20 mile route with an average time of six to nine hours, including rest stops, or do 10 miles with an average time of three to five hours including rest stops. The longer walk goes through the castle gardens to Snarkhurst Wood and the villages of Thurnham and Detling, then White Horse Country Park and the Pilgrims’ Way. For the 10-miler, which starts at 11.45am, walkers cut away west from Eyhorne village and pass through Coombe Wood before rejoining the 20-mile route along the Pilgrims’ Way. Contact www.breastcancercare.org.uk


8 mile circular route across the North Downs and through privately owned bluebell woods within the Torry Hill Estate. Remarkably, the walk is older than the 21-year-old Heart of Kent Hospice and made up part of The Wishing Well Appeal which raised the funds to open the hospice in 1991. Contact fundraising@hokh.co.uk


September Moonlit Walk, Saturday, September 21, 10pm to 2am, David Lloyd Leisure Centre, Kings Hill THE Heart of Kent Hospice Moonlit Walk is now in its seventh year and takes place, as the title suggests, through the night. The atmosphere is likened to a massive party as revellers turn up to walk a six or 10 mile route through the


night and raise vital funds for the hospice. Since its inception, the Moonlit Walk has raised more than £300,000 for the hospice. In 2012 the Moonlit Walk became a pyjama party and it created a sensational


scene as nearly 500 walkers turned out in their finest nightwear. As with the Bluebell Walk, participants pay to enter and they gain sponsorship to boost fundraising totals. Contact fundraising@hokh.co.uk


Memory Walk, Sunday, September 29, 10am, Leeds Castle THE magnificent setting of Leeds Castle and the distant Kent Downs will spur you on through this walk, which will be raising money for the Alzheimer’s Society’s fight against dementia. A choice of routes – either 3k or 10k – will take you through beautiful parkland with the chance to see a variety of rare wildfowl. Refreshments and entertainment will be waiting at the finishing line. Contact kylie.prankerd@alzheimers. org.uk


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