The fundraising walk is something of an annual tradition for Mike and his friends. In 2020, they walked the route in reverse in 31 days and raised £115,000 for Haven House Children’s Hospice in North East London, where Mike was previously CEO. This year, they chose to make the walk a joint event in aid of both charities. This marks both Mike’s move to Jersey Hospice Care and celebrates the shared aims of all hospices across the UK: to help people bring dignity and choice for those living with dying and to help them live life to the full.

During the summer, and before joining his friends for the final leg, Mike has been supporting Paul and Simon from afar by completing three walks and fundraising locally here on Jersey with his new colleagues at Jersey Hospice Care. In 30 days, the trio have raised over £50,000 to be split between the two charities and are still expecting further donations to come in. The £25,000 already raised for Jersey Hospice Care will be able to support more than one full day of running the charity’s services, which costs £19,600 per day, 365 days a year.

From these walks, combined with the final 230 miles from the Bridge of Orchy to John O’Groats, Mike will have covered an impressive 400 miles over the month. Mike Palfreman, CEO at Jersey Hospice Care, said: “I’m immensely grateful to Paul and Simon who yet again have undertaken the most amazing challenge and put their bodies on the line for my current and former hospices. Covid has had a big impact on fundraising generally and all the monies raised now will make a huge difference to both charities as we continue to emerge from the pandemic, enabling us to continue to provide our services to patients and families”.

Paul said: “Having completed the walk north to south in 2020, once we’d recovered, we felt we just had to do it again but this time south to north. Fundraising for Mike’s charities is a challenge we also always enjoy and we’ve been fortunate to have built a team of over 50 friends and colleagues who have joined various legs of both challenges, supporting us and doing their own fundraising”.

Paul, Simon, Mike and all the walkers who have joined them along the way are grateful to all those who have supported their efforts and generously donated to both Haven House Children’s Hospice and Jersey Hospice Care. Donations are welcome at https://bit.ly/Walkers-for-Hospices for both charities and www.justgiving.com/fundraising/jerseywalks for Jersey Hospice Care only. More information can be found on the Jersey Hospice Care website.