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.

NOMINATE ST MARY'S HOSPICE NOW!

BANK LAUNCHES NEW FUND TO SUPPORT LOCAL COMMUNITIES

NatWest and The Royal Bank of Scotland ('RBS') today announced details of a new fund to support local charities and projects, and are inviting customers and local people to decide who should benefit from this new community initiative.

Last month NatWest and RBS launched a charter setting out their commitments to customers and what they can expect from the bank(s). As part of the charter, which was based on direct input from 30,000 customers, they have made a commitment to support the local communities they work in.

Customers and members of the local community can nominate a charity or project by visiting their local NatWest or RBS or by logging on to www.natwest.com/communityfund and www.rbs.co.uk/communityfund

Once all the nominations have been received a panel consisting of representatives from the bank, local people and community figures will select three charities/projects from those put forward. The community will then be invited to vote for their favourite of the three, with the most popular receiving a £3,000 grant with the two runners up each receiving £1,000.

Jon Fox, Regional Managing Director for NatWest in the Midlands, said: "NatWest (RBS) has a long and proud history of helping good causes and our Community Fund will bring this support to a new level. By asking local people to nominate and vote for the community charities/projects which are important to them, the fund will be directly supporting the communities the bank serves."

Jon added: "By way of an additional support for the community, the bank has granted our employees a day away from the office to help local good causes. We hope this element of our customer charter will deliver more than 10,000 days of community volunteering in 2010."

Please spare a moment of your time by voting for St Mary's Hospice through each of the following links:
www.natwest.com/communityfund
www.rbs.co.uk/communityfund

Are you willing to jump out of a plane for charity? If so, St Mary's needs you!

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 parachute descent from a mile up in the air, steering yourself back down to the centre of the drop zone below.

So far 19 people have applied to jump for St Mary’s Hospice on Saturday 11th September 2010 to help raise money for the charity in Ulverston, which provides palliative and supportive care for those with life-limiting conditions throughout South Cumbria.

There are, however, still 11 places available and St Mary’s would like to fill them all if possible. Therefore, if you have been considering taking up a skydiving challenge and would like to be involved, please contact Hannah at St Mary’s on 01229 580305 as soon as possible.

Zoe Guest, Fundraising Manager said “We would like to thank all the very brave people who have volunteered to do this so far and are busy raising a significant amount of money to help support our work. If we could find another 11 people who are willing to take the challenge it would be a fantastic help for St Mary’s.”

The programme of jumps will take place at the North West Parachute Centre, Flookburgh.