We’ve launched our Christmas raffle and we’re hoping our nurse’s personal appeal for support will ensure it’s a success.

We use our special raffle and weekly lottery to raise almost £1 million a year towards care – a fundraising source made even more important by the impact of lockdown and pandemic restrictions as people can join in from home.

Outreach nurse Katie Hughes, part of our specialist community nursing team, has written a letter to 20,000 homes in the patch urging people to support the raffle, which has a top prize of £5,000.

Family

Katie says in her letter: “Every time I’m able to visit a patient in their home and help them and their family, it is made possible by someone like you supporting the hospice.

“It’s such a simple way to help us, if you can, and I see every day how much it means to someone. The pandemic may have stopped so many things we took for granted and saw as normal, but it didn’t stop the need for the hospice’s specialist care.

“Every ticket bought supports the care myself and my colleagues can give.”

Lockdown forced us to shut our shops, cancel all our fundraising events and all our supporters had to stay at home. The effect was to cut us off from £100,000 week in fundraising income.

Gift

Karen Swindells, our lottery manager, said: “We have to raise £2 for every £3 we spend on care, so supporting us through the raffle is a Christmas gift that lasts all year. Even though we’ve come out of lockdown our fundraising is still suffering in the pandemic and this is such a simple way for people to support us.

“Our raffles and weekly lottery contributed almost £1 million towards our caring services last year, far in excess of the prize money people won in return for their generosity. For the families receiving our care, this support is priceless.”

For anyone who’s not received Katie’s letter, raffle tickets are available from our website and from the high street shops we have reopened. Participants must be aged 16 or over.

Thank you for supporting us, our Christmas raffle has now ended but you can still join our weekly lottery.