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3rd March of Hope Sponsored Walk
8 June 2008

A beautiful blue sky and glorious sunshine gave a definite country-village feel to a delightful day in the prestigious private school grounds of Royal Russell with its imposing red brick buildings, perfect green cricket pitches and surrounding abundance of fragrant rhododendron bushes.   And what an amazing day it was!

The great event in question of course was the third Annual March of Hope!   The hot sun was beaming down on the 200 fabulous people who turned up in support of Jake and the AADC Research Trust, giving a splendid turnout!

Was it the hottest day of the year – quite probably!  The walkers committed to the 6 mile walk were surely melting in the heat, but fortunately there was plenty of bottled water around to sustain them in their aim to reach their own personal fantastic sponsorship totals which, with lots of hard work, they’ve been able to accumulate over the previous weeks!

Further support to the event came from an array of lovely individual stalls, beneath striped gazebos; one of which had a wide range of bright colour bedding plants and pretty hanging baskets, another with a delicious assortment of large and small iced cakes, next to which was a particularly interesting book stall with a great collection of fiction and non-fiction hardbacks and paperbacks to browse through before buying.

The aroma of the very busy sizzling barbecue added to the sunny ambience with smells of frying onions, sausages and juicy burgers wafting in the warm air, all served in poppy seed buns with fresh salad.  Absolutely yummy!

The bar naturally was a particularly busy spot, especially with exhausted walkers ‘staggering’ to the nearest watering hole!   Others were sitting around in groups chatting, laughing or just sprawling on the grass sunbathing, relaxing with their beers and cold drinks listening to the lively background music beating out which also amplified the family party atmosphere.

Children were running around enjoying themselves, and under supervision were scrambling over the supporting local fire engine, some leaping about on the huge bouncy castle; others having their little faces painted with bright butterflies, tigers or scary-face designs with enormous teeth - which looked great for attacking a juicy burger!  Then on over to the teas and coffees stall for cups of lemonade, cold squashes, cans, crisps, chocolate biscuits and perhaps a very large slice of sponge cake with icing sugar and fresh strawberries on the top! 

The highlight of the day, of course, had to be the presence of our very own Gabrielle, who always gives such amazing support to the AADC, and who, having given up her valuable time yet again, was wandering around the crowd looking stunning, while chatting and laughing with everybody……..what a star!

Towards the end of the day the raffle was drawn and some lovely prizes were on their way home with the very lucky winners; but in the end some people enjoyed the day so much they just didn’t want to leave at all! 

It is at this time we would like to thank EVERYONE who made such huge contributions in so many different ways. Your magnificent donations, in whichever form they came, helped to make this special day a brilliant success.  Whether it was your truly generous online Gift Aid donations, sponsorship collections, individual donations, raffle ticket purchases, donating kegs of beer, plants, books, cakes, crockery etc; everything is so very much appreciated!

A special mention to the Barclays Bank Staff who nominated us for the Bank’s   £ 4 £ scheme and raised an additional £1300

But most of all we would like to thank you for the precious TIME and EFFORT that you all caringly donated in order to help us once again raise essential funds for this very worthy cause.

Because of YOU the day raised a staggering...

£28,000

…and still counting

Our heartfelt thanks once again …….

Lisa and Tony and all at The AADC Research Trust

More pictures to follow...