St Mary’s Hospice launches Sponsor a Nurse: a new fundraising initiative to raise vital funds to support increased demand for hospice services.
For over 33 years, St Mary’s Hospice has delivered free care to patients and their loved ones across our community. The hospice provides high quality and personalised care, whenever and wherever it is needed: for those who want to come into the hospice or have Hospice at Home support.
These services cost over £3.5m a year, with 17% of our charity’s funding from the NHS the rest comes directly from our generous community. And with demand increasing for our services, hospice care is needed now more than ever, delivered by the hospice’s exceptional staff and volunteers. In the last year, St Mary’s Hospice at Home team supported over 300 individuals and their families, and looked after 616 referrals to its Family and Bereavement Support Team.
Karl Connor, St Mary’s Head of Communications, Volunteering and Community Engagement: “We believe our nurses and health care workers are heroes. They go above and beyond, in good times and bad, to deliver the care our patients need, whether that be in the Hospice, or patients’ homes.
So many of our supporters have asked us how they can contribute directly to support the care our heroes provide. In response to that, we’re launching a new fundraising programme — which allows you to directly sponsor our nurses.
Sponsor a nurse features four of our clinical team: Lauren, Rebecca, Solveig and Marie. These wonderful women represent everything that’s best about St Mary’s Hospice.
Their commitment and dedication to ensuring they not only give expert care but also to treat every single individual with respect, dignity and love is truly humbling. We cannot change the outcome but we can change the journey and that can make a tremendous difference to both our patients and their families”.
“Until you experience St Mary’s you can never appreciate how perfect the place and the people are…. I take so much comfort knowing they made my dad feel relaxed, fearless and happy… I can’t thank them enough” (Lauren Wilson, daughter of Ian Ball)
Helen Carlson, St Mary’s Head of Income Generation: “In 2021/2022, 8 out of 10 patients’ care will be funded via voluntary income. Several of our vital income streams are in their very nature unpredictable, and covid certainly shone a spotlight on this vulnerability. It is critical that we balance this with income that is predictable and sustainable. By donating a little every month, via our Sponsor a Nurse campaign, you can give us that degree of security which makes it easier for us to plan the care we give.”
“The support the hospice receives from the local community is absolutely fantastic and means so much to all the staff and volunteers. By joining us in hospice fundraising events and supporting activities, such as Sponsor a Nurse, our supporters make a big difference to the team and to the patients and families we have the privilege of caring for.”