Anton McNulty
An English family will arrive in Mayo this Monday as part of their 1,000 mile walk around Ireland in aid of two children’s hospices - LauraLynn House at the Children’s Sunshine Home, Dublin and Little Havens Children’s Hospice in the UK.
The Horti family from Essex started their walk on July 1 and will be walking through Mayo over the coming days raising much-needed funds and support for the children’s hospices. Stop offs along the route will include Ballina and Westport.
Inspired by seeing the difference a children’s hospice had made to the son of a family friend, the Horti family – Dr Jane Horti, 47, husband Paul, a 47 year old IT consultant and daughter Annie, a 17-year old A-level student took up the gauntlet thrown down by l9-year-old medical student Sam Horti.
“As a parent, losing your child must be the worse possible scenario in life. I will have the luxury of spending eight weeks with my healthy teenagers and if we can help these families in a small way with this journey it will be worth every step,” explained Dr Jane Horti.
Due to open in September, LauraLynn House will be Ireland’s first children’s hospice and will provide community-based children’s palliative care in a unit designed and built specifically for this purpose.
The family are self-funding and have raised sponsorship from hotels and guesthouses along the route so that every penny and cent raised goes straight to the charities.
To learn more about the Horti’s 1,000 mile walk visit www.500more.org or to donate go to www.mycharity.ie/event/500more. You can also keep tabs on the Hortis during their adventure by following their blog and twitter accounts available on the website. To find out more about the Children’s Sunshine Home visit www.sunshinehome.ie.