On Sunday 7th May 100 walkers descended on Hursley for the inaugural Breast Walk Ever Hampshire. Supporters could choose from a marathon, half marathon or 10KM walk, all starting and finishing at the IBM Sports & Social club in Hursley near Winchester.
Walkers enjoyed near perfect conditions as the misty start made way for the warm spring sunshine. Each route taking in various national trails with participants invited to have a selfie with a King Charles, life-size cut out, whilst taking on the Monarchs Way to mark the long-awaited Coronation weekend!
All were welcomed back to the finish with a well-earned medal and a glass of something cold. There were even special medals for all the dogs too!
Over £18,000 has been raised thus far from the event with funds going towards ground-breaking research into secondary spread breast cancer, the main cause of breast cancer-related deaths. Event organiser Richard Martin commented on the significance of the new walk and its location:
“We wanted to bring the Breast Walk Ever to Hampshire to be near where a significant amount of our research takes place at the University of Southampton. Having both researchers and professors out on the course marshalling the walkers was an added bonus! We would like to thank our team of wonderful volunteers as well as all the walkers, without whom the Breast Walk Ever simply wouldn’t be possible.”
The walk brought together existing supporters with those perhaps less familiar with the work of Against Breast Cancer and the feedback received has been incredibly positive:
A lovely event, all the staff & volunteers were just fab, lots of smiles and encouragement. It was such a nice touch to have people from your labs at some of the stops, how nice of them to come along to thank us. Lia Harlock
We’ll definitely come back and do it again next year…the prosecco at the end was a brilliant finale!! Jenny Brookes
Thank-you for running such a great event. You couldn’t control the mud but everything else was really well organised, as always. Caroline Atkinson
Photos from the day, courtesy of Amber Griffith, Lucy Ingram and Josh Cawood are now available to view here. Following the inaugural event the team are already busy planning for Breast Walk Ever Hampshire 2024 as well as the Oxfordshire walk taking place on Sunday 10th of September.
Please keep an eye on the Breast Walk Ever website and the social channels for updates on both.