A BRIDE-to-be and her friends and family have turned a disappointing hen do cancellation into a touching display of support for north Cumbria’s hospice.

Sommer Studholme, 24, was due to marry her fiancé Sam Cole next month, but has had to postpone her big day due to the coronavirus lockdown.

Sommer’s hen do had been planned for this Saturday – a Grand National theme to coincide with the final day of the event – but with the nation in lockdown this too had to be called off.

“We’d hired a bus to take us to all the different venues, but with everything shutting down we got a refund from them and other places as well,” said Sommer, from Wigton.

But once they got the money back, Sommer and her group – sister Shannon, mum Sheila, cousins Sophie and Claire and Sommer’s friends agreed rather than divide it between them, it was better to give it to a good cause.

“Straight away we all said Eden Valley Hospice,” said Sommer, who works in a pharmacy.

“We’ve had close friends in there. They do an amazing job.

You just want something positive to come out of a situation like this. We’d heard that the hospice have had to cancel all their fundraising events this year because of the virus, so we knew they need support right now.”

Stephanie Lacaille-Burton, head of income generation and marketing at Eden Valley Hospice, said she was grateful for their £150 donation.

“We’d like to thank Sommer and her friends for the very kind donation which is already making a difference to local people who need nursing care,” she said.

“The hospice is facing difficult times with many of our fundraising activities cancelled or suspended, but at a time when our care is still very much needed.

“As a local charity we rely on the support of local people, and it’s great that our community are coming up with new ideas to show their support.”

Sommer and Sam, an engineer at Wigton’s Innovia, are hoping now to get married on October 10.

“We’re hoping by then things will have returned to normal to some extent,” Sommer said.

She added it was preferable to have seen May’s wedding cancelled than the daily worrying she was doing beforehand.

“Every day I was worrying,” Sommer said.

“If it had gone ahead and something had happened, or one of our family couldn’t be there because they were ill, then it defeats the object of why you’re doing it.”