Background Fundraising teams are always looking for something to make their hospice stand out. With hospices having ‘patches’, a good place to start is by looking at local landmarks and what makes your patch unique. In 2013, our Mini Marathon was born when our Fundraising Team saw an opportunity to create our own event using the link of the London Marathon starting in Greenwich. Our event starts at the famous Bandstand, with children running 2.62 miles (a tenth of a marathon) around the park.

Aims To connect with families, schools, community groups and corporates. To develop local partnerships, i.e. Rotary Clubs, running clubs, Cadets.

Methods Offered a fun run aimed at children. Schools assemblies and leaflets. Sponsorship opportunities to businesses. Offering volunteer opportunities to groups.

Results Over the past 10 years’ £500k has been raised through donations and registration fees. Since COVID-19 we are rebuilding the event back up to 2019 levels of support, with 950 signed up in 2023, we expect to raise £50,000.

Conclusions This event has led to engagement from 37 core schools who regularly support the hospice with event promotion and fundraising. Our assemblies help explain what a hospice is to young people and breakdown barriers and misconceptions. The event embodies community spirit with Rotarians, local businesses, Pearly People, police, firefighters, the Navy and Cadets all coming out in force to support. More than £50K has been generated by corporate sponsorship. The whole community gets behind this event with local restaurants support with ‘kids eat free’ vouchers and after the event, Greenwich fills with families celebrating. Hospices could emulate this event in their drawing on their own unique landmark.