North East hospices take on walk to raise awareness of care
Two North East hospices have joined together to walk between their hospices to raise awareness for the care they provide.
Teams from Teesside and Butterwick Hospices, which merged earlier this year, took on the 6-mile challenge as part of the nationwide campaign ‘Hospice Care Week’.
The group of 23 staff members and volunteers walked from Butterwick Hospice’s Stockton site on Middlefield Road to Teesside Hospice on Northgate Road, Middlesbrough, with the challenge aiming to raise awareness of the hospice care provision that is currently available across the region, and the support hospices need to ensure this care can continue.
Heather Stuart, Group Director of Nursing & Quality at Teesside Hospice Group, shared: “Nationally, 1 in 3 people are dying without the care they need at the end of their life – that’s a stat that should stop us in our tracks.
“We want to raise awareness of hospice care in our region so that people not only understand what support is available to them across both hospices, but also the importance of championing and supporting these services.”
It costs £20,500 per day to run Teesside Hospice’s services, with Butterwick Hospice costing £13,700 per day. Both hospices rely heavily on community support and fundraising to operate, with only a small amount of this cost coming from statutory funding.
Heather continued: “Whether it’s donating directly, shopping at one of our charity shops, volunteering or simply talking about hospice care to raise awareness, we really need support to ensure we can continue to grow our services and meet demand.
“A huge well done and thank you to our teams who took part in this walk, helping to grow the visibility of Teesside Hospice and Butterwick Hospice in our community.”
Hospice Care Week, which is taking place from October 5th – 11th, is a campaign by Hospice UK which aims to champion hospice care across the nation. This year’s theme is ‘don’t leave hospice care to chance’, focusing on the lack of funding given to hospice care.
Teesside Hospice and Butterwick Hospice merged in June 2026 with the aim to provide people across the Tees Valley and County Durham with access to better end of life care and ensure long-term sustainability of services.
Both hospices deliver specialist end of life care and wellbeing activities to patients across the region, as well as bereavement counselling to families. Teesside Hospice also operates a Tees-wide lymphoedema clinic, while Butterwick Hospice offers respite care for children and young adults.
For more information on Teesside Hospice visit www.teessidehospice.org, and www.butterwick.org.uk for Butterwick Hospice.