Hospice volunteers celebrated during acknowledgement week

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1st – 7th June 2015 marked Volunteers Week, an annual event which encourages charities throughout the UK to celebrate their volunteers and thank them for their dedicated time.

 

Weston Hospicecare currently has over 700 volunteers who help out in a variety of departments including clinical, marketing, fundraising and the retail enterprise.

 

The local charity invited their volunteers to attend an afternoon tea at the Commodore Hotel in Kewstoke on Monday 1st and Tuesday 2nd June.

 

Guests were greeted by the Volunteer & Training Team who organise the annual afternoon tea. The volunteers were thanked by both Maria Beaton, Volunteer and Training Manager, and the Hospice’s Chief Exec Gill Auden, who both expressed how crucial the volunteers are to the running of the charity.

 

Prestigious awards were presented to long service providers, including one volunteer who has been dedicating time to Weston Hospicecare for 25 years.

 

The dining area at the hotel was filled with beautiful decorations, and guests enjoyed delicious home baked scones by Iris Oxley from Hutton Garden Centre’s Waterfall Café – with cream provided by Yeo Valley and strawberry jam gifted by Lidl.

 

The volunteers were joined on both days by guest speakers. The Mayor and Mayoress of Weston-super-Mare attended the Monday afternoon event, whilst newly elected Chair of Trustees, Judi Driscoll – who is a volunteer herself – sat down to tea on the Tuesday.

 

The sunny afternoons also included a prize draw – filled with luxurious wines and chocolates – for the attendees who all left in very high spirits.

 

Maria spoke on the success of the event saying: “We hold this afternoon tea each year, during Volunteers Week, to give thanks to those who keep Weston Hospicecare running successfully. Our Volunteers save us around £1 million each year, which means that these costs can instead go straight towards patient care at the Hospice.”

 

“We’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who made the event possible, and to all of our past and present volunteers for dedicating their cherished free time.”

 

If you would like to volunteer for Weston Hospicecare, click here or speak to the team today on .

Make Your Will Week 2015: Most successful yet!

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Weston Hospicecare’s fourth annual Make Your Will Week, held in March, has been pronounced a resounding success, with solicitor’s firms across the area topping last year’s total by raising £13,243  to help fund care for local people with life-limiting illnesses.

The Week was supported by five local firms – Bennetts, Holley and Steer, Powells Law, Wards Solicitors and Bartlett, Gooding and Weelen.  Between them they wrote Wills for 114 people, free of charge, in exchange for donations to the Hospice.

Sally Davis, from Weston Hospicecare said “The Hospice receives amazing support from these firms.  We are very grateful to all the solicitors who generously gave their time and expertise to support Make Your Will Week and to those people who took the opportunity to make their Wills and made donations.”

Matt raises thousands in London 2 Brighton challenge

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Running 100km from London to Brighton isn’t the way most people would choose to spend their weekend but on the last bank holiday weekend in May, Matt Cooper did exactly that.

 

He was joined by over 2000 people who also chose to run or walk the 100km distance from Richmond, London to the finish line in Brighton. Both seasoned runners and ultra walkers tackled the course with most competitors also choosing to fundraise for charity.

 

Matt explains why he chose to support Weston Hospicecare with his fundraising:

 

“I chose to run the London 2 Brighton 100k challenge for Weston Hospicecare because my friend’s Uncle passed away there. Both he and his family were cared for and supported by the team at the Hospice and I wanted to give something back.

 

I decided I wanted to raise £1,000 for the cause. My family and friends were extremely generous with sponsorship money and we also held two cake sales in the offices at my work to help me towards my target.”

 

Whilst the fundraising came easily to Matt, the true challenge of running 100km still lay ahead of him.

 

The course itself was very tough and 25% of participants didn’t manage to complete the entire challenge. Unfortunately, Matt was one of those few and at 57km he had to pull out due to a significant ankle injury which left him taking a week off work!

 

Speaking about his injury, Matt said:

 

“Even though I got injured during the challenge, it was one of the best experiences of my life. I am now determined to go back next year to complete the second half of the course!”

 

We are so thankful to supporters like Matt who choose to tackle some incredible events in order to raise funds and awareness for Weston Hospicecare. The £1,000 in sponsorship money which was raised by Matt and his family and friends could pay for three patients to be cared for in our on site In-patient Unit for 24 hours. Thank you Matt!

 

If you would like to take on the London 2 Brighton Challenge for Weston Hospicecare next year, you can visit this link to secure your early bird place for 2016. Alternatively, you can speak to Claire Dibben (Event Fundraiser) on to find out about the other challenges you can take on for Weston Hospicecare.