HOSPICE charity Dorothy House is inviting local people in Melksham and Corsham to join its One Man and His Dog’ walking tour.

From October 17 to November 2, Dorothy House chief executive John Davies and his springer spaniel Myrtle will embark on a 180-mile walk, visiting all 28 Dorothy House shops in 20 towns and spanning the hospice’s 700 square mile region.

The walking tour will start and end in Bath with celebration events and will take in towns such as Keynsham, Radstock, Frome, Warminster, Trowbridge, Melksham, Devizes, Chippenham, Malmesbury and Corsham among others.

The tour will launch the hospice’s bold Everyday, Everyone plan for 2018-2025 to deliver outstanding palliative and end-of-life care across Bath and North-East Somerset, Wiltshire and Somerset.

Mr Davies and the Dorothy House team will share the hospice’s vision for the future, meet with local people, businesses, charities and community groups and raise vital funds for patient care.

Mr Davies said: “I’m excited to be walking the Dorothy House patch and look forward to meeting and walking with the public, local businesses, charities and community groups on my travels to share our vision for the future.

“Our bold new strategy provides a solid platform for us to meet the challenges facing hospice care through partnership, innovation and smart financial stewardship.

“Please join me on our walking tour as we seek to inspire the community to support this much-treasured hospice and work alongside us to ensure that outstanding end-of-life care becomes part of the ‘everyday’ and accessible to ‘everyone’.”

The ‘Everyday, Everyone’ plan is the outcome of a two-year review and analysis into local care needs which revealed that demand for palliative and end of life care is set to grow by a third between 2018-2025.

The plan outlines how Dorothy House will develop its care and support services in the next seven years while meeting the challenges of an ageing population and a widening patient base.

Currently 21 per cent of people cared for by the hospice are non-cancer patients which will rise to an expected 56 per cent in 2025.

You can join a short leg of the walk, attend talks or social events or donate funds via https://localgiving.org/fundraising/onemanandhisdog/. You can also follow John and Myrtle’s progress on social media channels.