Local residents are being invited to sign up for this year’s Men’s Walk to Support, helping raise vital funding for the Dorothy House charity.
Photo © Dorothy House Hospice Care
The walk creates a space for men to speak about their experiences of grief and bereavement, as well as keeping active and staying outdoors.
Men from all over the area are set to get involved and raise funds for specialist end-of-life care.
This year’s event will be taking place on Saturday 8th March.
The 8-mile walk is an opportunity for men aged 8+ to join together in solidarity and share their life journeys together.
The walk starts at 11am and 12pm from Dorothy House at Winsley, and participants will set off on the route that follows along the canal and finishes at Bath Pavilion, in time to watch the day’s Six Nations matches.
During the launch for the 2024 Men’s Walk to Support, Dorothy House hosted a Locker Room Chat featuring Bath Rugby player and Dorothy House Ambassador Tom Dunn, fellow Ambassador, Alan Phillips and his son Seb, Bath Rugby player Kieran Verden, and Chris Eames, a recipient of Dorothy House’s care.
The conversation, facilitated by Dorothy House Hospice Care’s Family Support Lead, Dominic Denny, covered topics such as expectations upon men who are grieving, ways of coping with grief and how to support men who are bereaved.
The full-length film has now gone live on the Dorothy House Hospice Care website and is designed to open up conversations about the male experience of grief and bereavement.
Dorothy House Ambassador, Alan Phillips, whose wife Amanda died eight years to the day of the Locker Room Chat, said: “Some days would be horrific and my role was just simply to make sure everyone else was okay.
“And that’s how I dealt with that. I was always trying to do a good job. I’d get up every morning and I’d think, okay, what have I done today to make sure I’ve made Amanda proud of me looking after these guys?”
Chris Eames, a Dorothy House fundraiser whose aunt died ten years ago at Dorothy House, said: “I just I spend the first couple of weeks just trying to be as normal as I possibly could, but then the funeral happened and everyone came and paid their respects and it was like they all moved on with their lives. And I was like still hating the world for what had happened.”
Entry to this year’s walk is £28 and all participants receive a free event t-shirt along with a free pint and food at the end.
To help raise vital funds for the charity, participants are encouraged to raise as much as they can to help Dorothy House continue to provide free end-of-life care.
Last year’s event raised £105,000, with the hope that 2025 will be even better.
You can sign up to take part here.
