St John's Hospice benefits from bank support

As one of Hospice UK’s largest and longest-standing corporate partners, the banks have been working with the charity for eight years, raising an average of £1,712 per day, to provide vital support to patients and their families at more than 200 hospices across the UK.

Individual hospices have benefited significantly from the Banks’ support, including St John’s Hospice in Lancaster, which has received more than £47,000 over the past eight years.

The backing has supported St John’s Hospice in overcoming the funding deficit it has encountered in recent years, so that it can continue to provide high quality hospice care for the community and meet the growing demand for its services.

St John’s Hospice has grown significantly over the last eight years, expanding Hospice at Home to a 24/7 service. As well as funding, the hospice has benefited from extensive volunteering support from Yorkshire Bank employees.

Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank employees have raised £2.5m with the banks matching their efforts pound for pound. Throughout the partnership, employees have also contributed more than 35,000 volunteering hours to their local hospices.

Every year hospices provide expert care and support to around 360,000 people, including adults and children with life-limiting or terminal conditions, their friends and families. The £5 million raised is equivalent to 200,000 hours of vital care from a nurse or the ability to keep a hospice’s services running for 555 days.

Hospices are facing a challenging future as the UK’s ageing population places ever-increasing demands on hospice care services. The money raised through the partnership has been used by Hospice UK to further its work as the leading advocate for hospice care, to promote excellence in the field, to support the hospice network up and down the country and to raise awareness of the cause.

To celebrate the financial landmark and to build on the success of the partnership to date, the banks have launched a fitting challenge which will see up to 200 employees hike more than five million steps across the Yorkshire Dales in September 2016 in what is set to be the largest employee fundraising event in the Banks’ history.

David Duffy, chief executive officer at Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks, said: “This amazing fundraising milestone is testament to the hard work and dedication of our employees who give their time through fundraising and volunteering for this extremely worthwhile cause. With the banks match-funding every penny raised, it’s a real motivation for our team to celebrate and continue to build on the £5 million achievement.”

Catherine Bosworth, director of income generation at Hospice UK, said: “Raising this tremendous total of £5m for Hospice UK, and hospice care across the country, was only made possible thanks to the incredible dedication that we have seen from branch to boardroom at Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks.

“We are so grateful to the Banks and every one of their generous staff for helping Hospice UK, and its members, improve care for people at such an important time of their lives. We cannot wait to see what comes next and celebrate with another successful employee challenge in September.”

A key feature of Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks’ national charity partnership with Hospice UK is that employees can make a difference to hospice care in the communities where they live and work. Each branch and office is matched with a local hospice and an overwhelming 99 per cent of branches have been actively involved in fundraising activity.

For further information about Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks’ charity partnership with Hospice UK, visit www.cbonline.co.uk or www.ybonline.co.uk