Morrisons stores go yellow for hospice care

This week the Morrisons store in Barrow in Furness will be pulling out all the stops to raise a smile and vital funding for St Mary’s Hospice as part of UK-wide campaign by the supermarket to raise £1 million for hospice care.

Through its new partnership with Help the Hospices, the leading charity supporting hospice care throughout the UK, every Morrisons store has teamed up with their nearest hospice to raise money that will directly fund hospice services in the local community.

To get the 10 month partnership off to a bright start, Morrison’s Barrow in Furness will be ‘Going Yellow to Raise a Smile for Help the Hospices’ through a range of fun and exciting yellow-themed fundraising activities for colleagues and customers.
Zoe Guest, Funding & Operations Manager at St Mary’s Hospice said: “This week’s yellow activities are focused on raising money for hospice care. It costs approx £2.4 million for St Mary’s to provide all of its services each year and of that we need to raise £2 million. The help we receive from the local community is very special and the money raised by Morrisons will make a huge difference to the services we can provide for local people."

Mike Palfreman, director of fundraising at Help the Hospices, says: “We are delighted to be Morrisons Charity of the Year. We look forward to working with Morrisons to make the £1 million target a reality so that everyone facing the end of life can receive the best possible care.”

Angus Maciver, Group Marketing and Communications Director, Morrisons, said; “Each year we ask our colleagues to nominate a charity that we will help ‘Raise a smile’, and for 2010, we are really pleased that Help the Hospices was the resounding choice. Local hospices do great work at the heart of the communities that many of our stores operate in and we look forward to raising some vital funds to support such a great cause. We will officially launch the partnership across the nation at our stores today, including Barrow in Furness, with donation bucket collections and other activities which we hope will get the fundraising off to an excellent start to hit our £1million target.”

To get involved, head down to your nearest Morrisons store, The Strand, Barrow in Furness. For more information about the partnership visit www.helpthehospices.org.uk