Last updated at 22:56, Thursday, 14 June 2012

The daughter and granddaughter of the woman who founded Hospice at Home West Cumbria are taking part in this year’s Midnight Walk on June 29.

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Margaret Dowling helped start the hospice organisation 25 years ago and Jackie and Victoria Reeve will do this year’s women-only fund-raising walk in her honour.

Jackie, 49, of Bothel, heard about the walk when she was invited to the charity’s 25th anniversary celebrations earlier this year.

She said: “When I think what she helped start I think how it has helped so many people since and what a brilliant idea it is as well because, when it comes to the end, people quite often want to be at home.”

Victoria, 18, added: “I didn’t really realise what she did for hospice until she died but it is pretty amazing.

“I think she probably would find it quite funny that we are doing the walk because we are not the most athletic people but I think she would have wanted to do it too.”

Margaret set up the hospice with a group of other nurses and Dr Brian Herd in 1987 and worked tirelessly for the organisation until her death in 2007 from pulmonary fibrosis, a side effect of arthritis.

Jackie remembers when Margaret was invited to meet Prince Charles at Highgrove and barely mentioned it to the rest of the family.

Jackie said: “It was never a big thing, she never bragged about it or said what she had done.

“She was always happy; even when she was really ill she was never grumpy, never complained about any pain she was in.”

Jackie works for HSBC as a commercial quality manager and has asked the bank to match-fund anything she raises from the six-mile walk.

She said: “When mum died I was branch manager at HSBC in Workington and the amount of people who came in and said ‘I knew your mum and I am so sorry she has gone’ was amazing. I was touched by people’s comments.

“It makes you really proud. Even though she has been dead for a few years people are still mentioning all the things she has done and it has carried on.

“It would be so easy to forget who was there in the beginning yet no one seems to; they all say what a sad miss she is.”

Jackie and Victoria, who works in the cafe at Moota Garden Centre, will be joined by their dog Todd on the walk, which begins at Workington’s Tesco store.

Entry forms are available at the hospice fund-raising office at Cumberland House, Oxford Street, Workington, in the hospice’s charity shops and the Times & Star office in Oxford Street, Workington.

Entries can be made online at www.hospiceathome westcumbria.org.uk

First published at 19:23, Thursday, 14 June 2012
Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk