The North Craven Strollers group makes its first venture into fundraising tomorrow, with a coffee morning at Rathmell Reading Room.

The group is part of the national Walking for Health scheme.

The scheme was run by Natural England until earlier this year when it was divested to The Ramblers and Macmillan Cancer Care due to Government cuts. This has meant that North Craven Strollers now need to be self-financing, hence the coffee morning, which starts at 10am.

“We have developed our walking programme significantly over the last twelve months,” explained group chairman Dan Bavington.

“We now have around 60 registered walkers with 30 regularly attending walks in Settle, Hellifield and Gargrave. Although our costs are not high, we need to raise a few hundred pounds each year to be able to maintain our operations and develop them further. Everyone is welcome to the coffee morning to support us and find out more about the scheme.”

The Strollers offer regular gentle walks of about an hour in and around towns and villages in North Craven. They are designed to help people unused to regular exercise to develop an exercise habit. This might be those recovering from illness or operations, people for whom big rambles are no longer possible, or simply people looking to meet new friends.

They meet every Wednesday at 1.30pm in Settle, and every first Thursday at 10am in Gargrave and third Thursday at Hellifield at 10.15am - start times designed to coincide with local bus services.

For more information about the group and the coffee morning, contact ncravenstrollers@yahoo.co.uk or 01729 824537.