Forge Europa - Raising Money for Hospice Care Home & Away

Forge Europa, Ulverston is assembling a team of cyclists to undertake the gruelling 100km route from Carlisle to Ulverston on 3rd October 2010. The ride across the beautiful English Lake District includes a number of ‘leg burning’ climbs and is being attempted to raise money for two very worthwhile charities:

St Mary’s Hospice – Local palliative care
St Mary’s Hospice in Ulverston (Charity Number 517738) provides specialised supportive and palliative care for people throughout South Cumbria with life-limiting conditions. All St Mary’s care is provided free of charge, but it is not cost free and relies on the support, generosity and goodwill of the community.

CAFOD – Bikes for carers in Africa
Forge Europa wants to also support hospice care for those living in the world’s poorest and most disadvantaged communities. By raising funds for bicycles (each bicycle costs £50) organised through CAFOD (Charity Number 285776) health care workers who are often volunteers, can administer medicines, support, food and nursing care to many more people in their own homes in rural Rwanda, Nigeria and Mozambique.

50% of all donations matched
Forge Europa is committed to giving 50% matched fund raising which means for every £1,000 raised through sponsorship, Forge Europa will donate a further £500. Please help them reach their target of £20,000 for charity by sponsoring the cycle team.

JustGiving sends your donation straight to CAFOD and/or St Mary's Hospice respectively and automatically reclaims Gift Aid on all eligible donations, so what you give is worth even more. Added to this Forge Europa is committed to giving 50% matched fund raising which means for every £1,000 we raise through sponsorship, Forge Europa will donate a further £500 so your donation can help us raise so much more money! The fundraising target to is £20,000!

It's easy to donate online with a credit or debit card - just go to the following JustGiving pages. The first link is to make donations to CAFOD and the second link is to make donations to St Mary's Hospice. You can of course divide your donation between both causes by using both links below to make donations:

To make a donation to CAFOD: http://www.justgiving.com/CumbriaWayCycleRideCAFOD

To make a donation to St Mary's Hospice: http://www.justgiving.com/CumbriaWayCycleRide

St Mary's Santa Dash 2010

Sporting stars the Barrow Raiders swapped their rugby outfits for Santa Suits when they launched the St Mary’s Hospice Santa dash on Tuesday August 23rd.

As they launched the event at Craven Park the Raiders were full of festive cheer.

“We are delighted to be launching this year's Santa Dash, which will raise vital funds for St Mary’s. We are proud to wear our red Santa suits and hope others will support the Hospice by signing up to take part,” said Brett McDermott.

St Mary’s hopes that hundreds of bearded Santa’s, will be taking part in their first ever Santa Dash, on Sunday 28 November. The festive event starts at 1.30pm and after travelling a mile the Santa’s will finish at Victoria Gardens in time to join the Dickensian Grand Parade, which proceeds through the town centre at 2.30pm.

Everyone who enters the 1 mile run/walk will get a free Santa Claus costume, which they get to keep, and there will also be a medal for all who complete the run.

Zoe Guest, Funding & Operations Manager said “We hope our Santa Dash will be a really fun event for all the family and we hope to see hundreds of Santa’s running through the streets of Ulverston. The Hospice provides supportive and palliative care for life-limiting illnesses and to their families, both at the Hospice itself and at home. The Santa Dash will helps us to raise the funds we need to continue to offer these vital services.”

“Even though it is summer and the sun is shining, it is a great time to sign up for the challenge so you have plenty of time to get fit” said Zoe.

People wanting to take part in the St Mary’s Santa Dash can enter individually or as a family. Entrants must be 4 and over, and all those under 16 must be accompanied by an adult. Entry is £12.50 per adult and £7.50 per child with a special offer of £30 for a family of 2 adults and 2 children.

To enter please call the Santa Dash Hotline on 01229 580305.A registration form will also soon be available to download from our website.

St Mary’s team takes on the Cumbrian Way

To raise vital funds to support the work of the charity, Dr Helen Clayson, Medical Director and Zoe Guest, Fundraising and Operations Manager took on the challenge of walking the Cumbria Way.

The Cumbria Way is an exhilarating journey through some of the most beautiful and contrasting landscapes that Cumbria offers. Stretching from Carlisle to Ulverston the route offers the challenge of 70+ miles of walking through some of the most scenic and inspiring landscapes in Britain. The team started walking on the 20th August, and split the route into 5 stages of approximately 14 miles, finishing back at St Mary’s Hospice on the 24th August.

The team raised £2000 and were delighted with all the support they received. Both Helen and Zoe thoroughly enjoyed the experience and apart from a couple of blisters were fine on their return.

You can still sponsor the team by either telephoning the fundraising team at the Hospice on 01229 580305 or go to www.justgiving.com/ZoeGuest

FBS Affinity Account raises an amazing £152,631!

This year the total raised for St Mary’s from the Furness Building Society Affinity Accounts is an amazing £152,631.87. The picture shows Rob Cairns, Chief Executive from Furness Building Society making an official presentation to Zoe Guest Funding & Operations Manager at St Mary’s on Wednesday 11th August.

Every year the building society makes a donation to St Mary’s, representing one per cent of the total average savings held by affinity account customers during the year. The accounts have been up and running now for 9 years and have so far raised over half a million pounds for our charity.

£5000 raised at Windermere Airshow for St Mary's

The St Mary’s team were delighted when they were informed back in May by the Windermere Rotary that they had been chosen as one of the major charities to be supported by the Windermere Air Show. The 10th annual air show, which took place in Bowness on the 24th and 25th July 2010 saw thousands of people attend and resulted in £5000 being raised for the Hospice.

The photograph shows Zoe Guest, Funding & Operations Manager being presented with the cheque by John Newberry, President of Windermere Rotary on Wednesday 11th August.

The air show and the cheque presentation have been filmed for the television programme “The Lakes”. Therefore, watch out for St Mary’s being featured on TV in the New Year!

Barrow Raiders Coal Carrying Challenge!

The strength and stamina of the Barrow Raiders will be put to the test when they take on a sponsored coal carrying challenge to raise funds for St Mary’s Hospice.

This exciting challenge will see a team from the club, led by Brett McDermott carry 1cwt. of coal, (50 kg.) for close on a mile, as quickly as possible. The event will start at Canal Foot in Ulverston and the lads will proceed alongside the canal before reaching St Mary’s Hospice where they will be allowed to drop the coal at the foot of the entrance, which stands at the top of Ford Park Crescent.

Their fitness will certainly be put to the test, but it is hoped that lots of people will come along to support the team as they take on this challenge of stamina and muscle.

The team will be trying to raise as much sponsorship as possible for St Mary’s Hospice, which provides specialised medical and nursing care to people from South Cumbria suffering from serious progressive illnesses. At St Mary's care is provided free of charge, but it is not cost free. To maintain all services costs around £2.4 million a year, of which St Mary’s have to raise £2 million (£6000 per day) from our supporters.

Many thanks to The Boulting Group for raising £200

We would like to say thank you to The Boulting Group for raising £200 for St Mary's. Pictured is Ritchie Allonby, Howard Dixon and St Mary's Funding & Operations Manager Zoe Guest. Staff were asked to make Health and Safety suggestions at work in Sellafield. Ritchie's idea was chosen and he was given the chance to give away £200 to his chosen charity. Ritchie kindly offered to donate the money to St Mary's Hospice.