On Sunday 26 July 2026, a group of colleagues, friends and family set off from The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester and walked 30 miles to Cathedral Square in Blackburn. We called it Christie to Courmacs. For everyone who took part, it was one of the hardest and most meaningful things they have ever done, and none of us knew just how much it would come to mean by the end of that day.

We walked for Hermione, and for The Christie, the hospital that was caring for her.

Why we did this walk

Hermione worked at Courmacs Legal for four years, and some of us had known her since she joined the firm at just 16. Earlier this year, she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic lymphoma, a type of cancer that usually affect children, teens and young adults like Hermione. She then began treatment at The Christie.

We organised the walk while Hermione was still with us, still fighting, and still cheering us on. It was our way of thanking The Christie for the care she was receiving, and of helping fund the same standard of care for the thousands of other patients who rely on the hospital every year. This was never planned as a tribute. It was planned as support, for Hermione and for everyone else being treated there alongside her.

Hermione: From Darwen to leading our biggest team

Hermione was from Darwen, Lancashire. She joined Courmacs Legal at 16, starting out in our sales team. Within a few years, at just 19 years old, she was leading our customer service team, the largest team in the company.

That was not an accident. Hermione had a rare ability to bring calm into a room. People trusted her instinctively. She was fiercely loyal to the people who worked for her, always the first to fight their corner, and she consistently received the most positive feedback of anyone in our management team. When we needed someone to hold together our biggest, busiest team, she was the obvious choice, and she proved us right within weeks.

Outside work, she loved horses, dogs, and pretty much any animal that crossed her path. She was studying towards a law degree, with plans to qualify and specialise in helping people who had been failed or wronged by others, because that was simply who she was. She cared, properly and consistently, about people getting a fair outcome.

Colleagues describe her as bright, approachable, and the kind of person who made everyone around her feel better for having spoken to her that day.

The Christie to Courmacs walk

Thirty miles is a long way to walk in a single day, and the route from The Christie in Manchester to Cathedral Square in Blackburn tested everyone who took it on.

Colleagues from across the firm took part, alongside friends and family who wanted to be there and help raise money. A team of volunteers supported the walkers throughout the day, driving support vehicles, running checkpoints with water and energy supplies, checking blisters, and administering first aid where needed. Others collected donations along the route.

This was never a race. Some walkers completed the full 30 miles. Others had to stop earlier due to injury or exhaustion. Every single person who took part, whether they walked one mile or thirty, was part of this.

Food was provided at the third checkpoint in Bury, where volunteers handed out packed lunches, kindly made up and donated for free by Grub on the Green. Water bottles, donated by Bowland Water Coolers, was handed out at every checkpoint, to ensure our walkers stayed hydrated throughout the day (even in the pouring rain!).

At the finish line, the team at LiveWell Health were on hand to provide massages and foot compressions for walkers, which made a huge difference after a gruelling day.

The following Monday, we organised foot therapy treatments by Heather from Foot Heeler, who kindly donated her time for free to support the cause. She was a massive help to our walkers who had sore feet the next day!

The night that followed

Hermione passed away that same night, just hours after our team crossed the finish line.

It is hard to put into words what that news did to everyone involved. We had just finished one of the proudest days in the company’s history, and within hours we were dealing with the loss of someone who meant so much to all of us. Many of the team have said since that it felt as though Hermione had been waiting for us to finish before she let go. We will never know if that is true, but it is a small comfort many of us hold onto.

She was 20 years old.

Why we are talking about SJS/TEN

While being treated for her lymphoma, Hermione developed Stevens-Johnson Syndrome and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis, usually referred to together as SJS/TEN. This is an extremely rare and severe reaction to medication. It can develop very quickly and is considered a medical emergency, often requiring specialist hospital or burns unit care. Survival rates for lymphoma of this type are generally high, and Hermione had seemed to be improving, which made the speed of her decline once SJS/TEN took hold all the more devastating.

Her family has since learned that SJS/TEN affects only a handful of people in every million each year in the UK. Because it is so rare, awareness among the public, and even recognition in its early stages, can be limited. Hermione’s family had to push hard to get a diagnosis and understanding of what was happening to her, simply because so few people, even within healthcare, encounter it often enough to recognise it immediately.

That is why her family set up a dedicated fundraising and awareness page for SJS/TEN, and why raising awareness matters just as much to us as the money we have raised. All donations go to www.sjsawareness.org.uk.

What we raised

The Christie to Courmacs walk set out with a goal of £10,000. As a team, we raised more than £14,514, plus a further £3,168.46 in Gift Aid, which is 145% of the original target.

Courmacs Legal is making up the difference to bring to bring the total raised to £20,000, however this money will go directly to Hermione’s family.

We set out hoping to do something meaningful for Hermione and for The Christie. Seeing the total climb so far past what we hoped for has meant more to the team than we can properly put into words.

Not our first challenge: the Yorkshire Three Peaks

This was not the first time colleagues at Courmacs had pushed themselves for The Christie. On Friday 29 May 2026, a team of eight from the firm took on the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge, covering 25 miles and 5,486 feet of elevation in around 10 hours.

It was tough going from start to finish, but the team completed it and raised £2,540.68, plus an additional £549.25 in Gift Aid, all for The Christie.

That challenge was where this really started. It showed what the team could do together, and it built the momentum that carried through to the much bigger walk in July.

How you can help

The money raised for The Christie will support the hospital that cared for Hermione during her treatment, one of the UK’s leading cancer treatment and research centres, caring for patients from across the North West.

Alongside this, Hermione’s family have asked us to help raise awareness of SJS/TEN, the condition that took her life so suddenly. If you would like to support their awareness page, or simply want to learn more about SJS/TEN, you can visit the page they have set up in her memory.

Thank you to everyone who walked, volunteered, donated, or shared these pages.

And a huge thank you to:

• Bowland Water Coolers for donating 350 water bottles for the day
• Grub on the Green for providing 50 nutritional lunch bags with halal, veggie and meat options
• LiveWell Health for looking after our walkers so well at the finish line
• Heather from Foot Heeler for donating her time to support our walkers the next day

Hermione knew, before that night, just how much support was behind her and behind The Christie. We hope this walk, and this post, keeps that support going.