St Helena Hospice has been overwhelmed by the support from the local community and their amazing fundraising efforts.
Since the UK went into lockdown, so many local people have been raising money for St Helena Hospice in a variety of ways.
We want to say a huge thank you to everyone who is continuing to support their local hospice in any way they can – whether it’s challenging yourself and asking for sponsorship; holding your own virtual fundraising event; sponsoring somebody; or donating to our Urgent Appeal.
If you’re fundraising for us, we’d love to hear about it – pop us a message on Facebook or email us at news@sthelena.org.uk
Here are just a few of examples of what local people are doing to support St Helena Hospice:
Tom Phillips began growing sunflowers 5 years ago to sell to family and friends in Brightlingsea where he lives. He decided to donate a percentage of the money he made to charity.
Tom's father told us that "donating to St Helena Hospice was a natural choice for him as they took such good care of his Grandfather, Colin Brown who sadly passed away in 2002. Tom is 13 years old, so wasn’t able to meet his Grandfather, but when we talk about him we always tell Tom what great care he and the family received during his time at the hospice and as a result it is close to Tom’s heart.
"Tom has continued to grow sunflowers and has now enlisted the help of his younger sister Jessica. This year, because of the pandemic he decided to give sunflowers away to anyone who wanted one and asked them to make a voluntary donation (only if they wished to do so) to the Hospice.
“We are very proud of him." and so are we! Thank you, Tom
Kevin Petch is doing a combination of walking and cycling to clock up 1,000km over 6 weeks, and he has set himself a target of raising £1,000 – that’s the distance from London to Marseille!
Kevin said: “I like cycling and I do an average of 12,000 steps a day to keep some kind of fitness, so I set myself this challenge.
“I’m supporting St Helena as my wife works there as a bank nurse and I have had family and friends spend their final days at The Hospice.”
You can see how Kevin is getting on here: https://www.facebook.com/donat...
Kate Dawson and her son, Peter, aka DJ Pete, have been staging a live disco in their lounge over Facebook.
They play requests for people in return for a donation to charity.
They’ve held two successful events so far, raising money for both St Helena Hospice and the NHS.
Kate said: “Lockdown gave us the idea. My son, Peter, is really getting into his DJ-ing. We did one just for fun, then people suggested we did it for the NHS, which we did.
“I’ve always supported St Helena Hospice and fundraised for them, so we did another disco and raised £1,035 for the hospice. It’s a good idea as it’s sociable for those listening in.”
Eleanor Toohey decided to brave the shave to support St Helena Hospice.
With an original target of £500 – Eleanor has smashed that, raising more than £3,000!
Eleanor said: "I was quite nervous at first, but it’s only hair right? There are people going through much much worse.
“My sister works there as a grief counsellor and what she does is totally amazing. However, it is only going to get harder for them to reach all the people they need to. Family members are being lost every day in the most tragic and traumatic circumstances and in the coming months they will be busier than ever."
You can find Eleanor's JustGiving page here: https://www.justgiving.com/fun...
7 year old, Freya, was so happy with the donations and support she got from running 2.6km on 26th April 2020 that she decided to extend her challenge and run or cycle 2.6km for another 4 days!
She finished her challenge with a 2.6km run on Thursday 30th April ending at The Hospice car park where she was welcomed by staff and volunteers cheering her on (from a distance!).
Freya has now raised £600 – smashing her original target of £50!
Angela and William were inspired to do a 2.6 Challenge of their own, playing Tennis for 2.6 hours to raise money for St Helena Hospice.
Angela said: “I do the Your Hospice Lottery but haven't done any fundraising for the Hospice before. It is such a worthy cause and we never know when we may need your services.
“We are very lucky to have our own tennis court but I am unable to play with my usual friends at this time. We usually play twice a week. So I persuaded my husband, who hasn't played for 10 years, since he had a new hip, to join me in doing our own tennis marathon for 2.6 hours on Sunday morning, when we would usually be sitting watching the London Marathon on the TV.”
Angela and William raised nearly £2,000 from their challenge.
Lizzie Meeks was inspired by our A-Z of fundraising and decided to hold her own bake sale.
The Meeks bakery raised £235 in one weekend!
9-year-old Darcy and ten-year-old Stanley completed a 2.6km bike ride to raise money for St Helena Hospice with their parents, and raised £70.
Darcy sent us a little note saying: “I just wanted to write a quick email to say thank you for everything you do and to say thank you for helping people like my great nanny.
“I have done your superhero run before and yesterday me and my brother did our own sponsored bike ride (2.6 challenge) to help raise money for your charity- we managed to raise £70.”
A group of 140 adults and children from Running Colchester, completed 274 runs, including with a treadmill marathon and a driveway marathon!
Their aim was to run 1,000km between them over 7 days from their homes, either in their gardens, living space or driveways – with a target of raising £3,000 for St Helena Hospice.
They clocked up a whopping 1,168 miles in the end and have raised over £6,500 in the process!
If you're inspired by these fabulous fundraisers, would you consider fundraising for St Helena Hospice?
We've got everything you need to fundraise virtually for us - click here to find out more
Posted: 7th May 2020