Community raise over £1 million for new hospice building
New Hospice News News and Blog
Last year we launched our Full Circle Appeal. An ambitious appeal to make sure that nobody in the local community has to face death and loss alone. This included raising £5 million to build a larger hospice at Pease Pottage.
Thanks to the amazing generosity of local people, our new hospice is well on track. And an incredible £1.25 million has been raised towards a new building.
More than 250 people have supported us with donations for the new building. This includes a group of supporters, who each made a significant donation, to collectively fund the first patient room on our new ward.
Long standing supporters, The Ernest Kleinwort Charitable Trust, contributed £200,000, and The Verity Waterlow Endowment, a small trust funding end of life care in the Horsted Keynes area, also gave an incredibly generous grant of half a million pounds. Andrew Ronaldson, a Trustee of the Endowment said, “Verity Waterlow was fiercely independent but as she became more frail, like many of us, she needed more help. Her will rewarded those who helped her and was the foundation of her Endowment fund. We know that St Catherine’s depends on donations and other fundraising to do its work so the Trustees were delighted to give a grant for their new building. It was a natural choice for us.”
But it was the 7th Crawley Beavers who were the first supporters of our new building, when they donated profits from a cake and gingerbread bake sale. Yvonne Seetayah, Leader of the 7th Crawley Beaver Colony, said, “St Catherine’s gives so much to people who are really, really desperate, so we wanted to give something back. Supporting the new hospice was a lovely way to do this.”
All of this fundraising wouldn’t have been possible without two people whose generosity helped us to realise our long held dream of a new larger hospice. Bill Bridges, who generously donated five acres of land, and John Shemeld who left us a legacy of almost £6 million in his will.
The new hospice, which we hope to move into in early 2022, will allow us to provide more care when it’s needed most. It will allow our staff to offer respite care on the wards and more outpatient appointments. It will also allow us to give carers better support.
At the moment we can only help one in three people who need our support. But a larger hospice will help make sure that in years to come everybody can have hospice care. And that nobody is left to struggle alone.
Nick Bell, Director of our Capital Appeal said, “Every donation, large or small, expresses the commitment of people in our local community to providing care for others. And we’re thrilled to have passed the £1 million mark for our new building. We’d like to thank everyone who has supported us. This huge achievement wouldn’t have happened without you. But we’re not quite there yet! as we still need to raise more than £3 million. We’re confident that, together, we’ll achieve this though. So that in decades to come, our children, grandchildren, neighbours and friends will all have expert end of life care.”
To find out more about our new hospice plans and how you can support this historic milestone please click here
