St Christopher’s Hospice Midnight Walk 2011

Saturday 17th September 2011 saw TeapotOne attend the Midnight Walk in aid of St Christopher's Hospices 'Candle Project'.

St Christopher's Candle Project works with bereaved children and young people of all ages, helping them and their families to cope with bereavement. Quite often this bereavement is sudden, because of suicide, murder or short term illness.

All of us face an enormous challenge when someone close to us dies. But it can feel especially hard to know how best to help children who have lost someone close to them.

When 24-year-old Aaron Stokes was stabbed to death five years ago, his family were understandably devastated. His sudden and tragic death tore their world apart.

“As a family we were at crisis point”, says Marilyn, Aaron’s Mum. “I was at a loss of what to do to hold my family together “. In desperate need of help, Marilyn and her husband Elvis turned to St Christopher’s.

The Candle Project has been providing bereavement support for children, young people and their families since 1998.  The project offers one-to-one and group help to youngsters and their relatives, to help them come to terms with bereavement. We support around 200 children each year, including Aaron’s sister Ceyrone and brother Durone.

Five years after Aaron’s death, the pair still come to the group. Durone, 17, adds “You express a lot of feelings in the session…you’re around people you feel secure and safe with and who understand.  You recognise after going that it is something you need”.

It costs £150,000 a year to run the Candle Project. All of this money comes from supporters – without whom St Christopher's really couldn’t be there for the 250 children and their families they support annually.

The Midnight Walk was set up to help fundraise for this incredible project, and so on a cold Saturday evening in mid September, over 150 brilliant volunteers arrived at St Christopher's to take part in the inaugural event.

Although the temperature dropped, spirits soared especially as hospice physio staff led the crowd in a few warm up sessions.

After some spectacular examples of co-ordination, it was soon time for the walk to begin. It was to take the kind hearted participants on a route of some 5 miles through South East London, through Crystal Palace, Anerley and back to the hospice in Penge, with walkers expected to take anywhere from 1-3 hrs to complete.

Jo Brand is the patron of St Christopher's and she was due to open the event at 11pm. Due to unforeseen circumstances beyond her control, she didn't arrive until about 11:45pm but treated the waiting crowd to a great 10min comedy set.

Now with spirits and hearts soaring, Jo cut the start/finish ribbon and set the walkers on their way.

After about only 1hr the first walkers began to trickle back to the hospice, welcomed with smiles and words of encouragement from all the great volunteers. The last walkers came in not long after and with all safely home there was many a story to tell over a hot cup of tea or soup, not to mention the gorgeous cakes donated by a local bakers.

The exact amount raised by the walk is not yet determined, but keep an eye on the St Christopher's website at www.stchristophers.org.uk for the final total.

A huge thank you goes out to Fidelity International for their kind sponsoring of the event.

We at TeapotOne would also like to thank Paul, Liz and Becky for the kind invite to the event and for the great work they do each and every day.

Right folks, get yourself over to the St Christopher's Hospice website and see what you can do for this incredible place. You never know when you, or your loved ones, may need their help. Alternatively, donate via the teapotOne 'Just giving' page here.

pics copyright of (c) chrisphoto