Insight into the Fundraising Department

Publish Date: 10 March 2011

As I'm sure most of you are aware St Andrew's Hospice offers care to children and adults throughout Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire absolutely free of charge and receives little in the way of statutory funding.  We therefore rely heavily on fundraising to source the 3 million pounds a year needed to offer our patients the care they deserve be it symptom control, respite, rehabilitation or terminal care.

Did you know we also offer a wide range of services which improve the quality of patient lives such as Complementary Therapy, Physiotherapy, Creative Therapy, Pet Therapy, Music Therapy, Chiropody and Lymphoedema Clinics.

Bereavement counselling is also a very important aspect of Hospice Care.

We never fail to be amazed at the number of sponsored walks, bike rides, cycle rides, parachute jumps you all get up to just to help us.

We are very fortunate in that local people are very generous and help us tremendously whether it is a donation of £1 or a legacy of several thousand pounds it all helps.

We really do appreciate every single penny that comes in and we have a great team of volunteers who sit 'In the counting house' counting out the money!

Added to that we have our own fundraising department who are constantly coming up with new ideas.

Let me introduce them:-

Head of Fundraising is Jane Whenham-White.  Jane has been at the Hospice now for 15 years and as well as keeping the team in check she is constantly pursuing any possible donations from Charitable Trusts.

In charge of Retail Operations is Dianne Clark (fondly known to us as Mrs Shops).  Dianne joined the team in January 2009 and has increased the sales figures in our shops, opened a new shop in Sutton on Sea, a furniture showroom in Immingham, organised PAT testers to allow us to sell electrical items and never seems to stop.  In her 'spare time' Dianne and her husband have been renovating a house.

Debbie Lyons joined the department in June 2009 as our Lottery Sales and Marketing Officer and was instrumental in organising the 'Super Draw' last year as well as introducing weekly lottery tickets.  Debbie can often be seen in various department stores and supermarkets promoting the lottery so if you see her please stop and buy a ticket.  You never know it may just be the lucky one.

Angela Greenfield is a long serving member of the team having been with us since 2001.  Until recently Angela was a fundraiser covering the Lincolnshire area but has recently taken on a new role as Events Organiser and is now responsible for all these crazy antics you see happening such as sleepwalks for the ladies, drag races for the men and a walk on the prom for pooches, cycle rides, open gardens.  She never seems to run out of ideas.  Oh and on top of this she is in charge of our eBay operation.

Mike Gresham is a name I am sure that is familiar to many of you.  As well as being the fundraiser for the Humber Bank and everything north of the Bridge he is a keen Grimsby Town Fan.  We always know what mood he will be in on Monday morning just by checking the Mariner's scores on Saturday.  So come on Grimsby Town we are relying on you.  Seriously though Mike is always busy and his bigger events are the Millionaire's Evening and It's a Knockout as well as Santas on the Run of course.

The newest member of the team is Lisa Courtney who has taken over Angela's role and looks after Lincolnshire.  Lisa is a 'Brummy' and admits that charity fundraising is a little different to working for large corporate companies but now loves going to represent the Hospice at events such as a talks on flora and fauna and line dancing in village halls.  We all love it so please keep it coming.

Finally, I'm Lynne Lemon and joined the team on the same day as Dianne, initially as the administrator for the department having come home after living down south for nearly forty years.  At that time Yvonne Wright was still with us and really was the mainstay of the hospice leave alone the department.  Since her retirement in June last year I have been extremely fortunate in stepping into her shoes as Community Fundraiser.  This can entail going out to give talks at local churches and societies one minute and organising book sales and Hospice Sales the next.  All of which I thoroughly enjoy and hope I will be able to continue doing for a few years yet before they pension me off.

All this relies heavily on a wonderful team of volunteers who help us design posters, sort donations, make phone calls, help at Hospice Sales and other events.  A big thank you to them all.

If you would like to know more about the work of the Hospice or how you can help please give me a call on (01472) 350908 Ext 264.