Four hospices in Somerset have received a share of £10,000 awarded by the Masonic Charitable Foundation. The hospices provide palliative care to children and adults with life-limiting condition across the South West.
The St. Margaret’s hospices in Taunton and Yeovil each received a grant of £2,718. Based in Weston-super-Mare, Weston Hospicecare was helped with a £2,431 grant. Children’s Hospice Charlton Farm in Wraxall was given a grant of £1,829.
The hospices receive less than 60 per cent of their funding from the NHS and statutory sources, and rely on the rest being raised by local communities and charities.
Contributions from the Masonic charities to hospices across England and Wales have reached £12.3 million since 1984 and are continuing to increase at a rate of £600,000 a year.
Tracey Bleakley, Chief Executive of Hospice UK, which supports over 200 hospices in the UK, said:
“It is clear that the Masonic Charitable Foundation is a strong supporter of the hospice movement. The £12.3m donated to hospice care over the last 32 years is a tremendous and vital amount.
Hospices continue to be reliant on the support of their communities to meet the needs of local people with terminal and life-limiting conditions and collectively need to raise £2.7 million per day. Every penny really does count.”
The hospice care sector supports more than 200,000 people with terminal or life-limiting conditions each year, with an additional role in providing bereavement support to more than 40,000 family members.
As much as 80 per cent of hospice care is community based, with hospice home care, hospice day care and outpatient support.
