Cecilia Hooley

Forever in our hearts...

Doncaster 2008
© 2010 Alastair Hooley
Site last published: 01/23/10

Doncaster Lakeside 2008


Team Photo
On 17 February 2008 I took part in a sponsored walk around Doncaster Lakeside. The 10-mile walk had been arranged by a friend of my parents, Lesley Hurworth, who is Chair of the Committee of the Doncaster Book Award. Each year, Lesley and some of her colleagues arrange a sponsored walk in aid of a charity which has some particular significance with a person they know. On hearing about Cecilia from my parents they decided to do the walk in aid of the Neurofibromatosis Association.

Doncaster Lakeside is a man-made lake built on the site of a former airfield and rubbish dump in, believe it or not, Doncaster. It is, I'm told, 2 miles in circumference and with a clever bit of maths the 10-mile walk meant us doing 5 circuits of the lake.

In addition to Lesley, my parents, and myself, also taking part were Lyn Hopson (Secretary of the Doncaster Book Award) with Husband Mark and dog Jeeves, and Sally Dring (Treasurer) - pictured, sans myself as I took the photo.

As I would be taking part in another sponsored walk later in the year in aid of the same charity, I chose not to be sponsored for the Lakeside walk and instead made my own contribution to the charity.
The Doncaster Book Award Committee have now adopted the Neurofibromatosis Association as their charity and aim to hold a sponsored walk each year in memory of Cecilia.


On the day of the walk it was beautiful and sunny, rather chilly to start with but it got warmer as the walk progressed. My parents and I arrived late and Lesley and co had already set off. We eventually bumped into them, however, by cleverly walking round the lake in the 'wrong' direction.

The whole walk took about two-and-a-half hours and I must admit it didn't seem we'd walked 10 miles, no doubt due to my supreme physical fitness as I'm sure others can testify.

I had some difficulty in finding non-trivial information on Lakeside - most websites raved on about how wonderful the nearby shopping was (although, admittedly, Cecilia would have had a particular interest in this area). The best I could do for factual information was the website of the lake's architects - link on the left.

Money Raised: GBP460