35 people including 10 NHS workers and their friends and family walked from Winchester to Basingstoke Hospital on Saturday 9th June to raise money towards a new piece of radiotherapy equipment for the treatment of Breast Cancer which is being bought by the North Hampshire Medical Fund.

Their attempt was not foiled by the discovery of an unexploded WW2 bomb in the River Itchen in Winchester on Friday evening though they moved the starting point to Easton as a precaution. Their route took them across the meadows through Martyr Worthy to Itchen Abbas, then over Abbotstone Down, across the Candover Valley into Dummer (where the local WI provided very welcome tea and cakes) before the final leg along the back of Kempshott and down Roman Road back to the hospital.

The walk was organised by Tina Devereux and Lorraine Major, both of whom live in Overton. They both work at the hospital and were diagnosed with Breast Cancer in 2016 and underwent surgery followed by a three week course of radiotherapy. The new piece of equipment will give suitable patients a single dose of radiotherapy whilst in theatre which will mean that these patients will not have to travel to Basingstoke every day, which some patients and their carers find exhausting.

Tina said ‘We were both very fortunate to catch our tumours at an early stage. The treatment which we received from the Breast and Radiotherapy teams at Basingstoke has been truly exceptional, so we wanted to give something back to the team and for the benefit of future patients’

The walk has raised in the region of £8,000 through a variety of means and you can still donate via their Just Giving page.