TELEVISION presenter Pam Royle is cheering on a hospice team taking part in an allwoman charity walk this weekend.

Ms Royle, along with Tyne Tees colleague Dawn Thewlis, is stepping out with 600 others on the Butterwick Midnight Walk around Sedgefield Racecourse on Saturday.

She was filming for a programme about the event at the Butterwick Hospice in Bishop Auckland last week when she revealed that she had a very personal reason for supporting the charity.

She only learned the value of a hospice's role after he father Ted died from cancer ten years ago at the age of 69.

She said: "My father had cancer, but it was very sudden so be didn't have the benefit of a hospice. Had he been diagnosed and had we known, they could have helped us as well.

"I want more people to know about what hospices like the Butterwick offer.

"This is a very happy, uplifting place which offers a lifeline to patients and their families.

"We have seen ladies having their nails painted and men having hand massages.

"They all tell us how much they look forward to coming.

The staff are wonderful."

Ms Royle chatted to staff including four nurses who are taking part in the event Sister Ann Neesam, Judith Hutchings, Liz Marley and Kathryn Stones.

Patient Vince Bell, a 77-yearold retired Durham County Council joiner from Toft Hill told her: "I love coming here.

They look after us and I can't praise them enough."

Tyne Tees is broadcasting a report on the walk and the work of the hospice on North East Tonight on June 17, at 6pm.