THE popular Badminton Ride closes out the summer for the Beaufort Hunt, and this year it raised over £7,000 for charitable causes.

More than 900 people entered the ride this year, held at the Badminton Estate in Gloucestershire, home to the Duke and Duchess of Beaufort and where the famous international horse trials are held.

The Ride gives riders a fun taste of what the cross country part of the Badminton horse trials are like, with a course of some 10km and 30km or so with optional fences.

£6,000 of proceeds were donated to Hope for Tomorrow, a national charity that supports cancer sufferers and their families.

A spokesperson for Hope for Tomorrow said: “[We] were delighted to be supported by the 2015 Badminton Ride and very grateful for their valuable donation of £6,000 which will help to keep the wheels turning on our Mobile Chemotherapy Unit Project.

“We sent along two representatives on the day who manned the last fence.

“The NHS mobile screening unit went to Sherston [recently] and as a result a number of local people were diagnosed with cancer.

“Some were given their chemotherapy treatment on board one of our Mobile Chemotherapy Units and the benefits of being treated closer to home were so much appreciated that [The Badminton Ride] decided they would like to support the Hope for Tomorrow Mobile Chemotherapy Unit Project.

“Hope for Tomorrow built the world's first Mobile Chemotherapy Unit, Helen, named after a friend of the founder who passed away from cancer.

“She is based at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust and staffed by expert NHS oncology staff as she travels out to give cancer patients treatment closer to home.

“Hope for Tomorrow has now launched nine Mobile Chemotherapy Units and they cover Gloucestershire, North and South Wiltshire, Hampshire, Somerset, Berkshire, Cornwall, East Kent and Lincolnshire with the tenth to be launched in West Suffolk in 2016.

“Our goal is to have an MCU operating in every county in the UK making life easier for cancer sufferers.”

An additional £1,000 was donated to Badminton Church, who the Ride are proud to support.

A spokesperson for The Badminton Ride said: “St Michaels and All Angels Church, Badminton is at the heart of the rural and farming community.

“[It] plays an important role in the lives of those of us who live in the countryside around Badminton whether it is for worship, christenings, weddings, funerals or celebrations at Easter and Christmas and so it is important to help in its upkeep.”