Staff from Tesco Extra Bare All for St Mary's

A sneak peek at the charity calendar
On the 2nd September the staff from Tesco Extra in Barrow in Furness held a celebration evening at the Nines to launch their wonderful new charity calendar.

A group of ladies and gents from the supermarket decided to pose nude for their 2011 edition and to raise funds for their chosen charities: St Mary’s Hospice, North West Air Ambulance and Ostley House Amenities Fund.

All the members of staff who volunteered to be featured in the calendar are featured in a number of poses for different months, performing a variety of everyday tasks around the store. The pictures were very tastefully taken by Kells photography.

A batch of 1500 calendars, sponsored by a number of local businesses, have been printed and are on general sale at the Tesco Extra store in Cornerhouse Park and the Tesco Metro Store at Roose now. You can also call St Mary's Hospice on 01229 580305.

The calendars are available at the Customer Service desk in both outlets and cost £6. All proceeds will go to the charities and the Tesco team hope to raise a grand total of £9000.

We hope that as many people as possible will support the team.

Charities Share Celebration of Community Work

Representatives from three key partner charities joined Furness Building Society at the first Westmorland Gazette Business & Tourism Awards held in Kendal, where the society was commended for its work in the community.

Pictured at the black-tie dinner and presentations are: (left to right front)Anne Burrow from the North West Air Ambulance, Zoe Guest from St Mary’s Hospice, and Sue Thompson from the Rosemere Cancer Foundation. With them are their hosts (left to right back) Rob Cairns, Furness Building Society Chief Executive, Steve Pryer, Finance Director and Ian Bell, General Manager, Marketing and Development.

The Society also sponsored the awards, which recognised achievements by businesses from Cumbria, north Lancashire and north Yorkshire.

Howard to run New York Marathon for St Mary's

On the 7th November, Howard Graves from Broughton Beck is to run the New York Marathon to raise funds for St Mary’s Hospice. The New York City Marathon is a major annual marathon covering a distance of 42.195 km / 26.219 miles. The course runs through all five boroughs of New York City. It is one of the largest marathons in the world, with 43,659 finishers in 2009. Along with the Boston Marathon and Chicago Marathon, it is among the pre-eminent long-distance annual running events in the United States.

Howard said “New York 2010 will be my first overseas marathon and I wanted to mark the occasion by raising money for my local hospice, St Mary's in Ulverston. St Mary's provides a fantastic service to the local community in Furness and the South Lakes region, but in the present economic climate needs even more help to raise funds so that it can maintain the vital work that it does.”

You can sponsor Howard at www.justgiving.com/howardgraves

Hospice Chief Executive Exclusive Interview

Further to the recent press coverage of the Hospices financial situation. Please follow the link below to see an interview with St Mary’s Chief Executive, Alan Lodge.

North West Evening Mail Interview

Interview Video

Skydivers raise £4522 for St Mary's!

Imagine standing at the edge of an open doorway in an aircraft flying at 10,000 feet - the noise of the engines and the wind ringing in your ears with only the outline of distant fields below. Now imagine leaning forward out of that doorway and letting go - falling forward into the clouds, diving down through the air as you start freefalling at over 120mph! Then imagine the peace and quiet as the canopy opens, the steering toggles come down either side of you and you begin a tranquil descent from a mile up in the air, steering yourself back down to the centre of the drop zone below.

This is what 29 people did on Saturday 11h September 2010 to help raise money for St Mary’s Hospice, which provides palliative and supportive care for those with life-limiting conditions throughout South Cumbria. The programme of jumps took place at the North West Parachute Jump Centre, Flookburgh and each of the brave participants raised a minimum of £130 for the charity with many raising much more. So far the total raised is an amazing £4522.15!!

Zoe Guest, Funding & Operations Manager said "We would like to thank all the very brave people who volunteered to do this and who have raised a significant amount of money to help support our work.”

If you feel brave enough and would like you name to take part in next year’s sponsored skydive please email events@stmaryshospice.org.uk

Barclays Bank Match Funds Hospice Events

We would like to thank the staff of Barclays Bank, Dalton Road, Barrow for taking part in the annual St Mary's Walk to Remember and raising a grand total of £722. Ladies from the branch raised £361 in sponsorship money which was kindly match funded by their employer.

In addition, we would also like to tank the branch for helping us in arranging our recent Race Night and helping us to raise £1034.65, which also attracted match funding from Barclays of £750. To raise a total of £1784.65 from the event is an amazing achievement and we are extremely grateful for their support.

The help we receive from the local community is very special and it is what enables St Mary's to continue to provide comprehensive supportive and palliative care for adults in South Cumbria.

Both awards from Barclays will prove to be highly beneficial to our Hospice and the many people in the local community we support.

Coal Haul - Raiders Raise Money for Hospice

The lads get loaded up with coal at Canal Foot.

On with the haul!


The finishing line at St Mary's Hospice.

The lads enjoy a well deserved rest.
Persistent heavy rain did not stop a fired up 8 man squad from the Barrow Raiders completing a gruelling coal carrying relay on Sunday 19th September. The Barrow Raiders’ aces swapped a rugby ball for a hefty bag of coal to raise funds St Mary’s. Forward and coal merchant, Brett McDermott, led the charge as the rugby league stars took it in turns to carry a 50kg sack of coal along Ulverston Canal bank and then up Ford Park to the Hospice.

The Raiders spurred one another on as they each took the load from the back of a pickup and carried the weight along the one-mile canal route. A crowd braved the rain to cheer on their heroes at the canal, and as they then made the last push up the hill.

“Just another day at the office,” said Mr McDermott as he easily lifted the bag, but some lads struggled with the grip in the rain. The lads were assisted by Mr McDermott’s father, Ged McDermott, from the family coal business, and volunteers who followed the truck.

Mr McDermott, said: “It was good turnout, despite the weather. The boys enjoyed it, and it was good of them to join in this event which was for such a good cause. We hope to have raised over £1000 for St Mary’s."

Zoe Guest, St Mary’s Hospice fundraising manager, said: “It was absolutely fantastic that the players turned out to raise money for St Mary’s Hospice in this way, especially in the very wet conditions. We really appreciate their support.”

The Barrow Raiders’ coal carriers were: Brett McDermott, Ned Catic, Zeb Luisi, Martin Ostler, Jamie Rooney, Jamie Butler, Chris Young, Chris Larkin and Mark Dixon.

Palliative Care Funding Review

The Right Care and Support for Everyone

A new review into the funding of palliative care was announced on July 9 2010 by the Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley, in a speech to the International Carers Conference in Leeds.

The review, chaired by Tom Hughes-Hallett, Chief Executive of Marie Curie Cancer Care, will look at how Government can make sure that the money intended to help look after people who are approaching the end of life is spent in the right way.

This will better enable patients to choose how and from whom they receive their end of life care.

The review will make recommendations for a funding system that will cover care provided by the NHS, a hospice or any appropriate provider:

- which encourages more community-based care, so a patient can remain in their own home; and

- that will be fair and transparent to all organisations involved in palliative care.

The review will cover both adults’ and children’s services and will report back by summer 2011.

The following website is designed to give you some background to the review, and the reasons why it is taking place. Most importantly, it gives you the opportunity to contribute by sending your comments, opinions and evidence via the questionnaire.

Palliative Care Funding Review Website

Make Someone's Christmas with Noel's Christmas Presents

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without NOEL’S CHRISTMAS PRESENTS and Sky 1 HD and Twofour Productions are looking for people who have been selfless or have faced adversity and truly deserve the Christmas present of a lifetime. Maybe you would like to reward someone who has remained positive despite suffering a serious illness and without this present may not have such a happy Christmas. Maybe you know someone who has done exceptional things for others, given their life to help a charity, or ill and underprivileged people; or maybe you just know someone who dreams of spending Christmas with a lost love or family member they haven’t seen for a long time or someone they have never actually met.

This Christmas starts with the TV institution NOEL’S CHRISTMAS PRESENTS on Sky 1 HD and Sky 1 as some of the nation’s most deserving, hard-working and selfless people are rewarded with a Christmas Present they will never forget. Noel Edmonds travels the length and breadth of the county surprising those people who go further than anyone else to make a positive difference to their individual communities and the people living within them. Each person selected is surprised with a once in a lifetime present or trip which they have dreamed of but never been able to have. Once they have received their present Noel then follows them as their dreams come true, making sure each person has the experience they truly deserve.

Produced by Twofour productions, NOEL’S CHRISTMAS PRESENTS has firmly established its place as must-see Christmas TV on Sky1 HD and Sky 1, with last year’s show attracting a cumulative audience in excess of 3.5 million.

To nominate someone for one of NOEL’S CHRISTMAS PRESENTS and make their wildest dreams come true or to tell them more about your story visit www.sky.com/noel or email noelschristmaspresents@twofour.co.uk or write to Noel’s Christmas Presents, Twofour Broadcast, 6 - 7 St Cross Street, London , EC1N 8UA. Or you can call 07728 268 089.