Walkers pull on their boots for Francis House

Hundreds of walkers pulled on their boots to participate in a sponsored walk taking in the famous Cheshire Three Peaks.
Over 130 people took part on Sunday June 7, to help raise funds for Manchester based Francis House Children’s Hospice. 
Teams of local businesses, families and individuals tackled the 13.75 mile route around Macclesfield Forest, Tegg’s Nose, Shutlingsloe and Shining Tor.  
Organisers Francis House, planned the walk along with a shorter 6.4 mile route around Macclesfield Forest, with the help of Neil Astill, a manager at RBS Group Plc and an experienced hill walker.
The Cat and Fiddle, Buxton Road, provided bacon butties at a scheduled stop roughly half way around the course.
Among those taking part were a group of trekkers destined for Morocco.  The party of fourteen used the walk as training in preparation for a 5 day trek later in the year.  Chief Executive of Francis House, David Ireland was amongst those completing the route in under six hours.
David said: “It’s quite a challenging walk but with blue skies and spectacular countryside it’s been fantastic.  We are delighted so many people came and supported our hospice, and for myself and fellow trekkers it has been a great opportunity to get to know one another before our journey through the High Atlas mountain passes of Morocco in October.” 
Francis House Children’s Hospice provides respite care for children and young people with life-limiting conditions and the necessary support and short-term rest for their families. The hospice supports families from all across the North West of England.  All services are given completely free and by far the largest part of funding comes through charitable donations. To run the services provided by the hospice costs £9,863 per day. 
The event is expected to raise over £7,500. 
For more information on the work of Francis House visit: www.francishouse.org.uk