A caring woman will be putting her best foot forward to help people who are coming to the end of their lives.
Mum-of-three Lynsey Kerfoot, 32, a care support worker at the Pendine Park care organisation in Wrexham will be taking part in the Nightingale House Hospice Ladies Midnight Walk in aid of the charity.
The event starts at 12am on Saturday 20 June 2015 on Llwyn Isaf, (The Library Field) in Wrexham and walkers will have a choice of either a 10km or 6km course.
Lynsey, from Wrexham, who works at Pendine Park’s Penybryn care home, will be doing the 10k version with her sister, Laura Williams, 29.
The midnight walk is traditionally the hospice’s biggest fundraiser and over the past eight years has raised in excess of £500,000.
This year it is extra special because it is part of the hospice’s 20th anniversary celebrations.
The hospice provides specialist palliative care free of charge to people across Wrexham, Flintshire, East Denbighshire, Barmouth, and the borders, including Oswestry, Ellesmere, Wem and Whitchurch.
Lynsey said: “Nightingale House does a lot of good work, and it needs all the money I can get. I’m hoping to raise as much money as I can.
“I’ve never done anything like this before. I don’t know how I’m going to do it. I am looking forward to it though.
“I saw the banner outside the hospice a few times and then one day I just decided that I was going to do it. Then I told my sister about it and she said that she was going to be doing it as well.
“I think it’ll take about two and a half hours.”
Penybryn opened in May 2007 and is a centre of excellence caring for younger people with neurological problems caused by acquired brain injury and conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis and stroke.
Lynsey added: “I’ve worked at Pendine Park for eight months now. I love it here, I really do. The staff here are brilliant and the residents are great.
“At Pendine Park we treat people as individuals because the residents are all different. You can have a bit of banter with them as well.
“Tracey Cuthill the manager of Penybryn is fantastic. She’s very approachable and you can talk to her about anything.”
Eleri Smith, fundraising officer for Nightingale House Hospice, said: “It’s important that people like Lynsey from Pendine Park take part in events like this because without them we wouldn’t be able to keep it going. It’s very much appreciated.
“This is the ninth year we’re doing the midnight walk. We’ve got over 500 people registered to do it his year. I’m really looking forward to it. It’s one of the highlights of the year. We’ve dubbed it as a big girls’ night out.
“It’s a lovely event because you get loads of people dressing up in costumes. For example we’ve had people dress as things like nuns and bumble bees. People take it very seriously and put a lot of effort into their costumes.
“We have a different t shirt designed for the event each year and this year it’s going to be jade green.
“It’s the hospice’s 20th anniversary this year so we’re doing a lot to celebrate it. Our flagship event is going to be the concert on September 5 at William Aston Hall where the Welsh Three Tenors are going to be performing.
“We’ve got the Wrexham waterslide next month on the 12th of July. That’s going to be the first event of its kind in Wales. It’s 260ft long and starts in the town centre. It’s going to have two slides side by side. It’s definitely different and it should be a lot of fun.
“We’ve also got our rainbow run coming up in September at the Bangor on Dee racecourse.
“This year it’ll cost £2.8m to run the hospice which equates to more than £7,700 per day. Since the hospice only receives 22 per cent from the Local Health Board, it is only enough funding to support the hospice for 79 days.
“The hospice therefore greatly relies on the generosity of the communities it serves to raise the additional funding of over £2m for the remaining days of the year.
“We have an inpatient unit, and a day care centre. We provide things like physiotherapy, alternative therapy and bereavement counselling.”
Register online for the Nightingale House Hospice Ladies Midnight Walk at www.nightingalehouse.co.uk/events/818/ladies-midnight-walk-10k-or-6k-alternative.
For more information please contact Eleri Wyn Smith on 01978 314292 or email [email protected].
