Two charities are calling for more support for two of their key fundraising events.
Tring’s Rennie Grove Hospice Care had hoped to get 250 to enter its first Ashridge Half Marathon, raising £25,000 for the charity.
Entry costs £17 and each participant is asked to raise £100 in sponsorship for the charity. But the number of people signing up has only just reached more than 70, and the event is taking place on Sunday, June 16.
Although it clashes with Father’s Day, hospice spokesman Gemma Baxter said the event was something the whole family could enjoy – by supporting a runner as much as by taking part.
She said: “We have been very fortunate to be given the use of the very beautiful grounds. People do go and walk there, but to be able to take part in an event there is quite a special thing.” You can sign up to it at www.ashridgehalfmarathon.org
Rennie Grove needs more than £6.5m a year to fund itself, and less than 15 per cent of it comes from the NHS.
Northchurch-based The Hospice of St Francis is appealing for more people to sign up to its Midnight Walk – one of its key fundraisers of the year.
Hospice director Ros Taylor said: “That’s going quite slowly, sadly. We want 700 people to take part, but we are only up to 300, and we have got a month to go.
“We have a target to raise £90,000 from the event, and it will leave quite a hole if we do not reach that target.”
The Midnight Walk on Saturday, June 29, has a five- and 11-mile route from the Hemel Hempstead School. Sign up at www.stfrancis.org.uk/midnightwalk
The Hospice of St Francis needs £3.6m a year to fund itself – and last year about £700,000, or 19 per cent, of that came from the NHS.