St Helena Hospice opened its doors to its first patient on 20th May 1985 meaning that in 2020 we are celebrating our 35th anniversary.
Over the last 35 years we been dedicated to helping local people face incurable illness and bereavement, supporting them and their families.
In May 1985 we opened The Hospice, six years after a steering committee met for the first time to get the project off the ground to fund and build a hospice for north Essex.
Three years later we opened our Joan Tomkins Day centre, built to host our day therapies services. Then in 1993 we our innovative STARS programme was launched, providing intensive bereavement support for young families.
Since then we have extended and modernised these buildings, expanded our services into Tendring, opening another centre in Clacton to run our day therapies and bereavement support services, introduced our 24/7 advice line, SinglePoint, and provided care and support to tens of thousands of local people.
We couldn’t have done any of this without the generosity and support of our community in north Essex. It is thanks to your help and kindness that we are able to make a difference for people at the most difficult time in their life.
And we aren’t stopping now. There is more we can do to help anyone who is in need of support when facing incurable illness or bereavement, however we need your help to do that.
As a registered charity, we rely on the generosity of people like you to raise the funds we need to run St Helena. With only a third of our funding coming from the NHS, the remaining two thirds comes from local people fundraising, visiting our shops, playing our lottery, leaving a legacy and donating.
Here are some of the ways you can support St Helena Hospice to help us be here for another 35 years: