Join The Martlets for the Midnight Walk, their biggest fundraiser of the year
Walk this way
It’s back! The Martlets Midnight Walk – the biggest girls’ night out of the year – will take place on Friday 14 June 2013.
To help promote the event the Martlets Hospice has enlisted the services of a previously unloved mannequin who has been given a new lease of life as ‘Matilda Martlets’. Matilda will be out and about in Brighton for the next few months, encouraging the women of Brighton to sign up. She’ll also be tweeting and posting picture of her encounters on Facebook and wants anyone who spots her to do the same.
Now in its seventh year, the Midnight Walk has already raised over three quarters of a million pounds to enable the Martlets Hospice to carry out its essential work, and organisers are hoping that this year’s walk will break the £1m barrier.
Each year the Martlets’ nursing staff care for more than 260 patients on the Hospice’s 18 bed InPatient Unit. The money raised by the walk will go directly to fund the work of these specialist nurses. The Martlets Hospice needs to raise £8,000 a day to run its services so the money generated by sponsorship on the Midnight Walk is vital.
Women use the walk as an excuse to get together with their friends and many give themselves team names to create real camaraderie. For inspiration look no further than last year’s Best Team Name competition winners: ‘Usain Bolts But We Stroll’, or the painful sounding runners up: ‘Sisters with Blisters’.
The Midnight Walk always has a great atmosphere as hundreds of women take to the streets of Brighton complete with flashing bunny ears, cowboy hats and face paint. Dressing up for the Midnight Walk is entirely optional, but it is all part of the fun, and this year there will be a prize for the best dressed. You can be sure that Matilda will be there at the front to lead everyone off!
Following the success of a shorter walk option, this year participants can again choose whether to do a six-mile or a 13-mile walk. The introduction of the six-mile route enabled more women to do the walk, particularly those with young children and work commitments.
Walkers do not need to be super fit; they just need sensible footwear and a sense of adventure! Both walks start at midnight from Brighton Racecourse and snake through the streets of Brighton and Hove. Marshals will be on hand around the course to ensure no one gets lost and the walk ends with a tasty breakfast.
All walkers will be asked to raise a minimum of £25 in sponsorship and anyone who achieves over £120 in sponsorship will automatically be entered into a prize draw to win a treat at the Thistle Hotel.
“It’s a girls’ night out, dressing up and supporting a local charity”
Antonia Sheperd, organiser of the event, said: “It’s absolutely not about how quickly you can finish the walk, this isn’t a race. For most Midnight Walkers it’s all about dressing up and spending a night walking through Brighton with friends. It’s a girls’ night out, supporting a local charity.
“A lot of the women who take part in the walk are doing it in memory of a loved one. Others may not have used the hospice services themselves but the walk can be an important way of supporting friends who have lost someone.”
So, sign up for the Martlets Hospice’s Midnight Walk and join hundreds of women, from all walks of life, who come together to have fun whilst raising money for this vital local charity.
To sign up or find out more visit www.themartlets.org.uk/midnight or call Rachel Chitty in the Fundraising Office on 01273 747455 to request an entry form.
