MOST people with arthritis would not consider running, let alone attempting a half-marathon. But Eileen Leonard, 54, does not allow the arthritis she has in both her knees to stop her raising money for St Teresa's Hospice.

This year she will take part in the Great North Run for the 18th consecutive year.

"Because of my knees I can't bend, but I'll run 13 miles," she said

Her 18th run coincides with St Teresa's 18th anniversary, a milestone that could not have been reached without Mrs Leonard and thousands more fundraisers like her.

Mrs Leonard's mother-in-law, Vera, was also a fundraiser for the hospice, until she was diagnosed with cancer and became a user of St Teresa's facilities.

Mrs Leonard said: "That's why I decided to raise enough money to furnish one of the new in-patient bedrooms in her name. I just think it is an absolutely wonderful charity. There isn't many families that aren't touched by this sort of thing."

Another fundraiser is Elsie Morton, 83, who is in remission from stomach cancer.

She was diagnosed with cancer in 1999 and had three quarters of her stomach removed. She then became a patient at St Teresa's, using the day care facilities.

Mrs Morton is determined to fight cancer by collecting money for the hospice. She raises about £3,000 a year through coffee mornings, make-up parties and sales of the book she wrote, My Alpha, about her fight against cancer.

"I go to the coping with cancer group at St Teresa's, which helps people to live with cancer, not die from cancer," she said.

"They were so good with me at the hospice, I wanted to give something back.

"I was 79 when I was diagnosed and I remember thinking when I was in the Memorial Hospital, 'if I get out of here I will do everything I can to make the word cancer not be so frightening'."

Mrs Morton has seen five members of her family die from cancer and says it that experience which gives her the strength to fight.

"I'm not giving up. I'm not going to give in to it. I'm fighting this for them, for my family who have died from it. I'm fighting it really with the fundraising I do, that's my way of coping with it."

Thanks to the fundraisers, the hospice has grown since it started out 18 years ago as a Hospice at Home service, where volunteers would go and sit with very ill people, often through the night.

Dorothy Davison, 73, from Bishop Auckland, is a retired social worker who was a committee member when the hospice movement first started.

She said: "The sitters were people who gave their time out of feeling for the patient, and really without a great deal of experience with terminally ill people, other than with their own families.

"It was sort of non-professional in that way, I suppose back then, but we had a lot of help and advice from some wonderful district nurses and doctors."

From those humble beginnings, St Teresa's Hospice now has its own premises at The Woodlands, a Grade II-listed building in Darlington. From there 300 active volunteers and 40 full and part-time staff continue to provide the Hospice at Home service, day care facilities and the new six-bed in-patient unit.

But without people giving their time and money, St Teresa's could not survive. It costs £1m a year to run the hospice, and at least £700,000 comes from fundraising.

Jane Bradshaw, hospice director, said: "Everything we do is free of charge to patients and carers. Everything is paid for through fundraising, donations and grants."

Mrs Morton said: "I am just glad I'm here and I have got the hospice, because they are wonderful people there - it's a place you go to feel better."