£5000 presented from the Thrift Charitable Trust

As many people are aware, it costs approximately £2.4 million for St Mary’s Hospice 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 we are extremely grateful to the Thrift Charity for awarding us this very generous donation of £5000. We really appreciate the support of the Thrift trustees at this particularly difficult time for our charity.

The picture shows Colin Biggs MBE from the Thrift Charitable Trust and his team of volunteers presenting St Mary’s with a cheque for £5000 at the Thrift Charity Shop in Church Street, Barrow.

Body Shop Party & Ladies Evening a Great Success

We do hope that all those who attended our Body Shop Party and Ladies Evening on Thursday 23rd September had a great time. We are pleased to announce that we made a profit of £618, which is much more than we imagined.

Thank you to everyone who helped with the arrangements and at the event. We will hopefully host a similar event next year - keep up to date with our events calendar.

Eileen's 100th Birthday Celebration raises funds for St Mary's

We would like to thank Mrs Eileen Muldoon for very kindly donating £320 to St Mary's Hospice. Mrs Muldoon recently celebrated her 100th Birthday and asked for donations to St Mary's rather than gifts.

Many people choose to give a donation to St Mary's, in lieu of gifts, when celebrating a special occasion. Whether it's a special birthday, anniversary, wedding or christening St Mary's can provide your guests with a special card inviting then to give a gift to the hospice. Gifts in celebration are an increasing source of income for St Mary's and we are very grateful to everyone for the generosity they show in helping us in this way.

Contact the fundraising team to discuss your celebrations and gift card requirements on 01229 580305 or email events@stmaryshospice.org.uk

Shepley Engineers & Sellafield raise £1230

Shepley Engineers Ltd at Sellafield, have been undertaking a cladding replacement project. For each panel replaced safely both Shepley & Sellafield Ltd decided that they would donate £1.50 each to a charity nominated and selected by a committee of the (hands on) workers on the project.

St Mary’s were nominated by Mr Paul Whitehouse (pictured first left) and were delighted to be chosen to receive £1230 on the 23rd September.

This is a fantastic help to St Mary’s and we appreciate their support.

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