I’ll do ANYTHING for the hospice that helped my grandad
From skydiving to raise cash, volunteering and even forgoing presents on a special day, there is almost nothing we won’t do to support end of life care
BE INSPIRED
TO SUPPORT her local hospice Lauren Robertson will do just about anything.
Over the past three years she has braved a ‘scary’ skydive to raise funds and helped out at numerous events organised by the Isabel Hospice – from charity walks through to music evenings.
Her latest challenge was last month when she took part in a sponsored cycling spinathon at her local gym, Gosling Sports Park in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, followed by an hour of pilates.
The 29-year-old accountant says: ‘I was on the bike for two hours and it hurt like crazy but it was all for a good cause so I kept going. I was a little sore afterwards but the pain was worth it.’ Lauren, who got married in May, is not alone in going the extra mile for her local hospice. She is one of tens of thousands up and down the country who regularly support a hospice, either by volunteering or raising money by taking on daring challenges such as skydiving.
Hospices, which came into being 48 years ago when St Christopher’s in Sydenham, South-East London, was set up by Dame Cicely Saunders, would not be able to provide their exemplary palliative care without such public support. Although all 219 hospices – 38 of which also look after seriously ill children – receive Government funding, this only makes up a fraction of the income they need. Ros Taylor, one of the country’s leading palliative care doctors, is national director at Hospice UK, the sector’s umbrella organisation. Previously, she spent 18 years as a doctor and chief executive at the Hospice of St Francis in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire.
She says: ‘As a sector, we’ve become good at raising money because we’ve had no choice. Individual hospices must raise between 60 and 85 per cent of their income to carry out their work. In pounds and pence that equates to £700million a year – £1.9million a day. It means arranging events, encouraging individual donations, organising regular raffles and getting people to leave us money in their wills.
‘It also involves drumming up support from local firms, running shops and inviting people to give up their time to support what we do.’
Taylor, understandably, is a passionate advocate for the sector. She says hospices should be reaching more people who are terminally ill.
‘Only between 20 and 25 per cent of those people who could benefit from the care we deliver, either at a hospice or at home, receive it. We need to increase those percentages but we can only do that if we engage with the public and demonstrate that what we do makes a real difference – by helping create a time of peace, family cohesion and treasured memories at the end of a person’s life.’
Like many hospice supporters, Lauren’s involvement with Isabel Hospice stemmed from a family member. Les, her grandfather, received care from the hospice before succumbing to cancer in March 2012.
Lauren says: ‘He died at home, which was his wish, but the support from the hospice in his last few weeks was unbelievable. It left an indelible impression on me which will never go away.’
Isabel’s running costs are £4.7million a year, £1.6million of which comes from the Government via the National Health Service. Last year, it cared for more than 1,300 patients, either at home through its 12 nursing specialists or at its hospice in Welwyn.
SHOP AND DO GOOD
DONATIONS do not have to be made in cash. Many people support their local hospice by giving away personal items – anything from clothes through to books – which are then sold through its network of shops, generating revenue.
There are 2,000 hospice charity shops dotted around the country. Among the hospices that run a retail network is Rennie Grove.
It has 23 shops located in its catchment area of Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire. Between them, they bring in more than £2million of revenue, making a big dent in the charity’s annual running costs of £6.7million.
Unlike most other hospices, Rennie Grove is set up primarily to provide palliative care in patients’ homes through its ‘hospice at home’ nurses.
The emphasis is on eliminating unnecessary hospital admissions, allowing people to spend their final days at home surrounded by family and loved ones.
Rachel Lewis’s gr a n d m o t h e r, Valerie Rickards, received home care from Rennie Grove before she died from cancer six years ago. It’s why Rachel, an events manager from Weston Turville in Buckinghamshire,
now goes out of her way to support the charity in any way she can.
Rachel, 19, says: ‘I’m always popping into Rennie Grove’s shop in Wendover and dropping off any bits and bobs of mine for them to sell. Ever since my grandma died I’ve tried to look at ways of paying back the charity for the love and care they gave her.’
St Peter’s Hospice in Bristol has the biggest network of shops. It has 47 in the South West, selling an assortment of CDs, household goods and clothes. Between them, they generate a third of the charity’s income – surpassing the funding they get from the National Health Service. ‘The shops are a window into the work hospices do,’ says Hospice UK’s Ros Taylor. ‘They are a vital ingredient in the funding matrix.’ Hospices are constantly looking at new ways of generating income. Andrea Fragata Ladeira, chief operating officer of St Luke’s Cheshire Hospice in Winsford, says innovation is vital if hospices want to protect their income. She says: ‘Every day at St Luke’s, I come in knowing that from scratch me and the team must create £8,600 of income before the day is done.
‘Without it we can’t continue to provide the 10 beds
for those who are terminally ill or fund the wonderful day care available to others who come to us while having chemotherapy and who will hopefully make a full recovery.’
Andrea adds: ‘As a sector we can’t stand still. At St Luke’s we’re constantly trying to reinvent the wheel. Seven years ago our summer midnight walk, a half marathon journey through Nantwich and Crewe, would raise £330,000. This year, it raised £180,000. It means we have to find new sources of revenue all the time.’
One solution is ‘Strictly Learn to Dance’, a competition where 20 couples are currently being trained up over eight weeks by renowned Latin American dancer Toni Franchitti, culminating in a grand finale later this month at the Lyceum in Crewe. Andrea says the event should raise £20,000 for the charity.
She has also been the catalyst for the launch of a website – Care2Save – that allows people to shop online at major retailers (the likes of Boots and Marks & Spencer).
Any purchase made through the website generates commission from the retailers. Buyers can then choose which charity this money goes to – it does not have to be a hospice. But a fifth of every commission payment goes to Care2Save Charitable Trust, which uses it to support palliative care nationwide.
So, for example, a customer who uses Care2Save to shop online at Boots for the first time generates a 5 per cent commission payment while a House of Fraser purchase triggers 6 per cent.
‘The website allows people to shop and give to charity at the same time without paying any more than they would if shopping online direct with the retailer’, says Andrea. ‘I booked a holiday this month for myself and Mauro, my husband, to St Lucia through the website. It meant £84 was paid to charity.’
Beverley Hamilton, from Sandbach in Cheshire, has used the website to buy lamps from Marks & Spencer and Christmas presents for four-year-old grandson Cody.
‘It’s a great idea,’ she says. ‘I’m a big supporter of hospices. I’ve lost 16 friends and relatives to cancer in the past 15 years, so I will do anything to help these charities.’
VOLUNTEER YOUR TIME
HOSPICES would not be able to function without drawing on some 125,000 volunteers who give their time, helping out at fundraising events or doing pro bono work – driving duties for example or making the teas for hospice visitors.
Beverley Hamilton, 49, has done lots of voluntary work for St Luke’s Cheshire Hospice, registering walkers for its annual midnight walk and organising the charity’s occasional outdoor cinema events. ‘My time and enthusiasm are worth more to a hospice than my money’, says Beverley. ‘I’ve even persuaded my partner Trevor to be this year’s Father Christmas for the hospice.’
Rachel Lewis also volunteers for Rennie Grove, as do her mother Susan and 21-year-old sister Mary. ‘It’s a family affair,’ says Rachel. ‘Valerie would be so proud of us.’ TO FIND details of your local hospice, you can ask your GP. Alternatively, you can use the ‘end of life care and hospices services’ search tool at website nhs.uk.
End of life support services, including hospices, can also be found at website dyingmatters.org – run by the National Council for Palliative Care. There is additional information at hospiceuk.org.
Finally, website Healthtalk.org, run by Oxford charity Dipex (Database of Individual Patient Experiences), contains videos and written interviews of people talking about their experiences of hospice in-patient care and day care.
What have you done to support your local hospice? Email jeff. prestridge@mailonsunday.co.uk.