However, the team of carers, nurses and support staff from Julia’s House, the children’s hospice charity, won’t actually be leaving the country as they take on the lockdown fundraising challenge to collectively walk, run or cycle 24,000 miles. This is a distance equivalent to travelling around the world.

Each staff member will use their daily exercise time to log their miles in an effort to jointly raise £50,000 which will help enable the charity to continue its vital work caring for local children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions in Dorset and Wiltshire.

And it’s not just hospice staff who are taking part in the challenge – actor Nigel Havers and long distance runner Liz Yelling, both patrons of Julia’s House, are contributing their daily mileage to the total.

Gemma Linford, who works as a carer for Julia’s House and is co-ordinating the challenge on behalf of the hospice teams in Corfe Mullen and Devizes, said, “Staff wanted to do something to help the charity during this difficult lockdown period. COVID-19 has had a big impact on Julia’s House, not just in terms of a loss of income due to the fundraising events we have had to cancel and the shops we have had to close, but also in the ways we are able to provide care to the families we support.”

At present the combined Global Challenge team across Dorset and Wiltshire has travelled 8,252 miles, all the way to the Indonesian island of Sumba, and is now heading towards its next big destination – Australia.

Julia’s House nurses and carers are continuing, under strict infection control procedures, to visit vulnerable children in their homes across Dorset and Wiltshire, responding to families’ changing needs on a daily basis.

To donate to the Julia’s House Global Challenge visit https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/gemma-linford2