Fundraising events for Dorothy House – a look back at 2024

Another year is wrapping up, offering the perfect time to look back and reflect on the past 12 months of fantastic fundraising events at Dorothy House, and to think about the possibilities and opportunities to come in 2025.

What an amazing year of fundraising events for Dorothy House!

The Men’s Walk to Support

The Men’s Walk was a particular highlight for Dorothy House, where we not only raised valuable funds for the Hospice in the form of a walk and rugby match at the end, but it also provided a space for men to talk and share their grief. We worked with our ambassadors, family services team and Bath Rugby to create a locker room video where men discussed bereavement and grief, and the need to share their feelings around supporting one another. The video also successfully highlighted bereavement services we offer at Dorothy House. We were really pleased to have raised in excess of £100,000 for the Hospice.

“Extremely well organised, lovely route and great to watch the rugby afterwards in a large group which contributed to a fantastic atmosphere – well done to all the organisers.” – Supporter

Midnight Walk

In June, our Midnight Walk returned, with not one, but two distances to choose from! It was a dazzling event in the city of Bath with fantastic support from local businesses such as The Great Wine Co and Mulberry, and a warm up with the legendary Cheryl Sprinkler from Mojo Moves. There was a party spirit, but the event also offered the chance for people to joyfully remember and celebrate a loved one too. 102 volunteers gave us their time on the night and we couldn’t be more grateful. The event raised over £60,000 for the Hospice.

The Big Avon Paddle

Alongside the talented team at Channel Kayaks, we held a record breaking Big Avon Paddle, which hosted 165 participants on the water. We were thrilled to find the event raised over £26,000, which far exceeded our target. It was a wonderful family event, which we always love being part of. We even had a participant who created their own coracle to use on the day!

Dorothy House Challenges

This year a number of people took part in our Challenges, some under their own steam, while others signed up for our managed events. There are so many challenges that our incredible community took part in, but to highlight a few; our second Dorothy House international trek in Vietnam took place in April with 22 participants in total. Most of the crew left as strangers but all came back as friends who have since met up socially.

We held two events where we saw supporters take to the skies in our Wingwalk and Skydive day. It was exciting to see so many of our nursing team face their fears and jump out of a plane to help support our patient care.

We also saw the return of the Frome Running Festival after a small hiatus, with new running directors now taking it on. It was great to see a well-loved event return and for the Hospice to be involved in partnership was really exciting too.

Christmas fundraising events for Dorothy House

After our amazing Bridge the Gap appeal, where we invited champions to support our matched funded activity, and raising over £377,000, came the Christmas events. This included our Light up a Life services, Christmas Fair and the Jingle Jog, in partnership with Winsley Cricket Club. Our new Reindeer Run for schools and nurseries had an exceptional year of signups, with 40 schools and nurseries taking part and 5,809 antlers delivered by our amazing teams!

Facing financial challenges for Dorothy House with our community

This year has seen an unsettled financial climate as well as much change. However, we have seen such joy come from many of the events that we have organised, as well as those that our amazing communities have delivered, to enable us to continue to bring happiness and support to those in our local community who need it the most.

“Thank you to all of our incredible supporters who have taken part in, donated or volunteered at any of our events. We really couldn’t do the work we do without your help. The Fundraising team at Dorothy House has worked extremely hard this past year, I am immensely proud of all that they have done to create events for our community to get involved with. We hope you enjoy the video round up and we look forward to seeing you at one of our events again and welcoming new supporters to get involved.”
Steph Cox – Relationship Fundraising Lead

We hope you have enjoyed being part of our events this year as much as we have enjoyed hosting them! Check out our 2025 events calendar and start registering your interest now.