PEOPLE are being urged to take part in a new charity walk in aid of a Hastingwood hospice this year.

The Guardian has joined forces with St Clare Hospice to support its five-mile Starlight Walk, which will start at 8pm at Loughton Leisure Centre on September 18 and take a circular walk to Buckhurst Hill and back.

Organisers hope to raise £50,000 and build on the success of the hospice's annual Midnight Walk in Harlow, to try and raise enough money to meet its £2 million-a-year running costs and expand the services it provides.

The Guardian spoke to the hospice's chief executive, Richard Cowie, at the walk's launch in Loughton today.

He said: “We have serious hopes and plans to expand our services further if we raise enough money, particularly for caring for people in their own homes.

“We're also expanding our bereavement services and adding a new doctor to our staff.”

“Our fundraisers have a target of 40 per cent extra to raise this year. We know the charity is going to have to raise that ourselves, because the NHS can't provide it.

“In some ways, I envy our neighbouring hospices that receive more NHS funding than us, but St Clare's is in a better position to survive the downturn because the community does support us.”

He added that he wanted the hospice to be able to reach out to people with terminal illnesses other than cancer.

“I started as a nurse and my clinical background is in HIV and AIDS,” he said. “I was a specialist nurse in the worst days of the disease's history, when a significant percentage of our patients died, so I learned a great deal about symptom management and the psychological and social care that's core to the hospice.

“I think with diseases other than cancer, people don't know what they have access to and I think one of the challenges with hospices is that people almost have a fear of us. "They think that it's going to be dark and gloomy and a one-way street, but when they come, they realise it's the opposite of that.”

Anyone over the age of 14 can register now for the Starlight Walk by visiting the hospice’s website or calling 01279 773 750.