Care home residents complete year-long fundraising for children's hospice

Following a year-long campaign of fundraising events, residents proudly presented their chosen charity for 2016 with a cheque for almost £2,000.

Staff at Noami House and Jacksplace, which helps children and young people with life-threatening illnesses, thanked staff and residents at Colten Care’s Braemar Lodge after they presented the charity with a cheque for £1,909.

Stephen Bailey, an ambassador for the charity who attended a presentation at the home, said: “We really appreciate the generosity and support of the residents and team here at Braemar Lodge.

“Without this kind of help we wouldn’t be able to provide the services we do such as caring for the complex medical needs of children, providing end of life care, and enabling bereavement care to be there for as long as a family need it.

“We rely very much on community fundraising and so we thank everyone here for all they have done.”

Naomi House and Jacksplace, which was Braemar Lodge’s nominated charity for 2016, provides expert hospice care to more than 340 limited and life-threatened children, young people and their families across central southern England.

Annual running costs for the charity are around £7m and with only 10 per cent of this being met by the Government, the charity relies heavily on community support and fundraising events.

Staff and residents at Braemar Lodge hosted a year of events and activities to raise money for their chosen charity, including pub quizzes, garden parties, barbecues and raffles, tying the fundraising in with the home’s daily activities programme.

Sylvie Rodulson, activities organiser at the home, explained: “We have a deliberate policy of combining our activities programmes with fundraising for charities.

“It’s always up to our residents to choose the organisations we support every year. We all get behind the choice and do what we can to help.”

The residents of Braemar Lodge have chosen Horatio’s Garden as their charity for 2017, a national charity launched in Salisbury in 2012 which helps to create therapeutic, accessible gardens at NHS spinal units to enable patients to enjoy beautiful outdoor spaces throughout the year.

click here for more details or to contact Braemar Lodge