The event raised an incredible £5,470 to support hospice care and incredibly attracted supporters who chose to take part virtually, completing the distance their way. We caught up with Val Easby, a manager at Abbeyfield, a local sheltered living facility in Thirsk, to find out more.
We were humbled to hear how residents, staff, trustees, friends, family, and even the local gas engineers walked laps around the outside of Abbeyfield to match the distance of the 9-mile Herriot Hike route.
It was a community effort to collectively walk, run, or wheel the planned 151 laps of the building to match the 9-mile hike distance. Incredibly the participants managed all 9 miles and more! In total they reached a distance of 14.5 miles and raised almost £800 for Herriot Hospice Homecare.
As not everyone could be there at the event, they adapted the challenge to work for their community including residents in their 90s! Abbeyfield also got their community involved by inviting their friends and family to take turns and share the load of walking laps of the building. Between the 28 participants, they managed to walk over 300 laps of the building.
Talking about the challenge, Abbeyfield Manager Val Easby told us that residents enjoyed taking on this challenge and are already asking when they can do this again as they felt the charity was close to their hearts. As Abbeyfield is local to Thirsk, raising money for a local charity that helps the community is particularly important to the residents.