BRIDE-TO-BE Niki Benjamin passed up the chance of a luxury spa on her hen night to complete the Oxford Moonlight Stroll.

Instead of getting pampered, she will be among 1,000 walkers doing a nine-mile route in aid of Sobell House Hospice on Saturday.

The 36-year-old will spend her hen night taking part in the Stroll in honour of her grandfather Bill Chiddington, a World War Two veteran from Chalgrove, who was 74 when he died from cancer at the hospice in 1999.

Mum-of-two Miss Benjamin, who will wear L plates on the walk, said: “Sobell House was not only a wonderful place for my grandad to spend his final days, but its staff were also amazing in their care and support for my whole family.

“This is a great way to support them.”

Sobell House Hospice is based at Churchill Hospital in Headington and provides palliative care for terminally ill people from across Oxfordshire.

The service is free to all but costs £3m a year to run. The Moonlight Stroll, now in its seventh year, is a major source of funding, raising £70,000 in 2012 alone.

Miss Benjamin said: “I have planned to take part in the Stroll several times, but having babies and other things have stopped me.

“When I found out this year’s event was on July 13, my grandad’s birthday, I took it as a sign that this was the year to actually do it.”

But Miss Benjamin’s plans came as a surprise to her fellow ‘hens’.

She said: “I didn’t realise, but my friends had planned a surprise hen celebration for me at a luxury spa.

“When I said I wanted to do the Stroll they were obviously taken aback.

“But then we decided we could do both. The six of us who can are doing the Stroll and the following day all of us will have time at a spa and a nice lunch.”

Miss Benjamin, from Harwell near Didcot, will marry her fiancé Simon Cockett, 46, on September 7, joined by their sons Archie, three, and Toby, five months, and the rest of their family.

She added: “My grandad was a huge part of my life and I spent a lot of time walking with him.

“He would be thrilled to know I am doing this and raising money for the hospice.

“I am also told that walking past Oxford’s most beautiful sights in the moonlight is a fabulous experience.”

This year’s Moonlight Stroll starts from St Edward’s School in Woodstock Road at 10.30pm and will have a science fiction theme.

s Sign up at oxfordmoonlightstroll.org.uk Niki Benjamin and her friends can be sponsored at justgiving.com/Nicola-Benjamin