200-mile trek across East and West Sussex to raise money for hospices hit hard by coronavirus outbreak

Kathy Gore, who is also a Deputy Lieutenant of East Sussex, is walking all 200 miles of the Sussex Hospices Trail after hospices were forced to cancel fundraising events and close their shops in recent months.

Hospice finances have been badly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and, although the recent government cash injection was welcomed, they will have to draw on reserves to continue delivering vital care to patients and their families.

Kathy said: “I’ve always felt passionately about supporting hospice care and while I’ve been championing this for the past 25 years.

“I hadn’t experienced on a personal level, until recently, how very special that care is.

“Two years ago my husband, Jack, was able to die peacefully at home with me thanks to the support of St Wilfrid’s Hospice in Eastbourne.

“In March this year, just a couple of weeks before lockdown, my sister, Mary, died in St Helena’s Hospice in Colchester.

“We, her family, were able to be with her round the clock, some of us sleeping there.

“Her pain and symptoms were controlled and her death was peaceful and just as she’d have wanted it.

“I can’t tell you how much that meant to us.”

The Sussex Hospices Trail was created in 2016 as a circular trail to link the areas served by all the adult and children’s hospice care providers across Sussex.

It has 26 sections, ranging in distance from three to 11 miles, and only nine people – and one dog – have so far walked the whole of the trail.

Kathy will set off from Chichester railway station on Wednesday (July 1) and plans to do one section each day – with a day off here and there to rest her feet – and is aiming to complete the walk by 31 July.

Friends of Sussex Hospices is run entirely by volunteers and has raised more than £3million towards hospice care.

You can donate to Kathy’s fundraiser on her JustGiving page or visit the Friends of Sussex Hospices website to follow her progress and find other ways to show your support.

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