Prospect Hospice is appealing for women to take part and men to help marshal its 15k Starlight Walk on September 11.

The hospice at Wroughton costs £4.5 million a year to run and relies on fund-raising and donations to top up its health service funding.

Three years ago the hospice staged a night walk to Barbury Castle from Marlborough and Swindon.

The walk has now been split into two events and the organisers hope the Swindon walk on June 26, in which 650 women took part, will have raised at least as much as the £65,000 it made a year ago.

The new Marlborough Starlight walk will start and finish at the leisure centre.

It will be led by experienced walker Patrick Norris over Marlborough Common to Rockley and on a circuit around the Temple Estate, by permission of Coun Konrad Goess-Sarau and his estate manager, Chris Musgrave.

Hayley Millin, from Prospect fundraising, said: “The leisure centre has come on board and is letting us use its facilities and Krumbz (the café in the centre) is donating refreshments.”

The organisers hope to get 500 entrants, each paying a £15 registration fee for which they will get a T-shirt. It is hoped they can each raise at least £100.

Sheryl Crouch, Prospect’s head of fundraising, said: “Hopefully the ladies taking part will make friends, share memories and feel a huge sense of achievement for what they will have done.”

Registration forms are available at Prospect shops in Marlborough and Pewsey, the library or people women can enter online at www.prospect hospice.net/marlboroughstar light