Barrow Raiders have teamed up with St Mary’s Hospice in Ulverston to launch a new fundraising appeal.
The hospice looks after people in every town and village across Furness, South Lakes, up the Duddon Valley to Millom.
It costs more than £3.5m to provide the services it delivers — with just 20 per cent of that coming from government.
The Sponsor a Nurse campaign asks supporters to make an affordable monthly donation — the equivalent of a cup of coffee or pint of beer each week — to help with running costs.
It will be officially launched at Barrow Raiders’ televised game on Monday against York City Knights.
Nursing staff from the hospice will accompany the players onto the field ahead of the game.
Head of fundraising Helen Carlson said: “Barrow Raiders are just like us — routed in the heart of the local community and loved by the public — they’re the perfect partners for us and we’re really grateful to Steve Neale and the board of directors for embracing this opportunity.
“Our nurses are out and about in helping people in every town and village across the region, providing care for people with life limiting illness in their own homes, 365-days-a-year, as well as looking after over 100 patients a year from across the region at the hospice itself, in Ulverston.
“We believe there must be 500 local people who care enough about what we do to sign up and sponsor a nurse.
“We’re hoping that by launching the appeal in partnership with Raiders we’ll reach a new audience who might not know about what we do, or realise that our nurses provide things like the local hospice at home service. If you’ve had a relative or neighbour who has died at home the chances are it’ll have been our staff who nursed them in their final days.”
Adele Neale, Raiders’ commercial manager, said: “We’re really looking forward to working with St Mary’s — it’ll be great to welcome the nursing team to the game on Monday night. We’ve made them our charity of the year and wish them every success with the Sponsor a Nurse appeal.”
St Mary’s Hospice’s integrated teams Sister Lauren McKenny said: “Patients and their families often call us heroes — of course we’d never call ourselves that, we see it as an honour and a privilege to be able to do the work we do, caring for people.
“ So to us the real heroes will be the people who sign up as sponsors, because they’re providing the money that means we can go on providing the care in homes and to families right across Furness and South Lakes.”
You can find more details on Sponsor a Nurse on the St Mary’s Hospice website, www.stmaryshospice.org.uk — and can sign up online in seconds.
