The North East’s biggest building society has strengthened its long-term relationship with HospiceCare North Northumberland, an independent palliative care charity, after providing a four-figure grant to help it meet its running costs.
HospiceCare provides emotional and practical care and support across North Northumberland to adults and their families, who are living with a life-limiting illness requiring palliative input.
As well as its core hospice at home service, the Alnwick-headquartered charity also runs a range of wellbeing services which includes a family/bereavement support service and a dementia support service.
The charity has now been awarded a £3,000 grant by Newcastle Building Society after being nominated by the team at the Society’s Alnwick branch, who have regularly supported the charity’s work in the last few years.
The funding has been provided through the Newcastle Building Society Community Fund at the Community Foundation, which offers grants to charities and community groups located in or around the communities served by the Society’s branch network.
HospiceCare covers a large geographical area stretching from just north of Morpeth to the town of Berwick, delivering their Hospice at Home care and support to families living in some of the most rural areas of North Northumberland.
Their high-quality end-of-life care and support is provided by a specially-trained nursing team and healthcare assistants who enable people to focus on what really matters: living well until the end.
This year, it will need to raise over £850,000, of which around five per cent will be contributed by the NHS, while the rest will be generated from fundraising, donations, legacies, trusts and their charity shops.
Jane Stratton, HospiceCare Business Volunteer, says: “All our services are free at the point of delivery and we never put a time limit on how long any particular individual or family can access our services – our door is always open for as long as they need.
“Newcastle Building Society’s Alnwick team have been extremely supportive of our work over the years, hosting pop-up shops for us and pitching in when we’ve need help in lots of different ways, and it’s wonderful that they’ve chosen to put us forward for this new grant.
“Having a block of funding like this gives us a bit of breathing space, as well as greater confidence that we’ll be able to cover the cost of delivering all the things that our service users need from us.”
Greg Brown, manager at Newcastle Building Society’s Bondgate Within branch in Alnwick, adds: “We see at first hand just how much of a difference HospiceCare North Northumberland makes to the lives of families living across our local community.
“Their commitment, dedication and care could not be greater and we’re extremely pleased to be able to strengthen our relationship with this wonderful organisation.”
Since its launch in 2016, Newcastle Building Society’s Community Fund has contributed over £2.1m in grants and partnerships to a wide variety of charities and projects across the region, including the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation and the Prince’s Trust.
The grants are so far estimated to have had a positive impact on more than 151,000 people.
The Newcastle Building Society Community Fund is run in association with the Community Foundation Tyne & Wear and Northumberland.