Vital patient facility transformed at St Luke's Hospital - all made possible by one special group of walkers on one special day

Walking is often seen as a simple activity, but at St Luke's, it created the most wonderful transformation of a vital patient facility. On the 20th April 2025, a dedicated group of walkers set out on a 26 mile route around some of the most beautiful parts of the Oxfordshire countryside, all with one purpose - to raise vital funds to transform the charity's physiotherapy gym.

The gym which was built as part of the Hospital at the end of the 1970's had been updated over the years but was now at a time when it needed a serious upgrade. New lighting, flooring and decoration were only a small part of the refurbishment. The physiotherapy team also wanted to purchase new dynamic equipment that could really help with the rehabilitation of post operative patients and for those residents who struggled with their day to day mobility.

Walking to success

Led by Trustee Juliet Norman and her organising committee, the walkers achieved an outstanding fundraising total . Through their amazing fundraising efforts, the group have rasied over £50,000 for St Luke's Hospital. This sum has paid for the complete renovation of the physiotherapy gym, the purchase of the new equipment and with money still remaining in the pot, funds will also be used by the Hospital to help refurbish the patient kitchen on the first floor.

The charity's Chief Executive, Richard Burden, commented:

The staff team here at St Luke's are absolutely blown away by the success of the charity walk. We have been looking at refurbishing the physio gym for some time now, however, we always have more demands on the money we raise for development work than we can secure for the charity. 

Over the past eight years, we have raised over £1.4 million towards a number of major building and refurbishment projects but this money raised by those who took part in the walk to support St Luke's means so very much to us all.

The physiotherapy gym transformation is now complete with the installation of the new equipment.

The trustees, staff and patients at St Luke's Hospital would like to thank everyone who donated and took part in the St Luke's Hospital 2025 charity walk for their amazing contribution towards this project. Word is that plans are already underway for the 2026 walk! Watch this space.