Volunteer Anne’s full of Hope for appeal
RAY OF HOPE ... St Clare's volunteer Anne Hope, pictured with daycare guest Alfie Bushell, is urging people to back the campaign.
A DEVOTED hospice volunteer is calling on people in the borough to help St Clare’s Hospice beat a £50,000 cash crisis.
Anne Hope has worked in her spare time at the hospice, in Primrose Terrace, Jarrow, for the last 12 years and says she enjoys every minute of it.
The 76-year-old said: “I started volunteering at St Clare’s after a friend said that she was going to and suggested that I might like it.
“I’d lost some friends and family to cancer so thought I’d give it a go. I really didn’t know what to expect, but I loved it right from the start.
“Now I’ve grown into the role of a volunteer and enjoy meeting people from all walks of life.”
The grandmother-of-15, who lives in Dorset Avenue, Hebburn, with her former police officer husband, Peter, 73, works in the hospice’s daycare unit.
Her duties include serving tea and coffee to the patients, setting up for lunch, and running bingo games and other activities.
She said: “The first time I went along, I couldn’t believe what a happy place it was.
“People think it’s going to be depressing but it’s not. It’s really just a group of friends getting together once a week to have something to eat and a chat over a game or two of bingo.
“Some people think that St Clare’s is just a place where people go to die, but it’s much more than that. There are people who go to the daycare now who were going when I first started volunteering.”
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Now Mrs Hope is urging people to get behind the hospice in its hour of need and back the Gazette’s c/o St Clare’s campaign.
With annual running costs of £2m – £1.4m of which it must raise itself – the hospice is facing a £50,000 shortfall.
In a bid to bridge the financial gap, the Gazette has launched a campaign to raise the money with the help of its readers.
Mrs Hope said: It’s a shame that it has to rely on people to raise money for it, but every little helps. All the staff at the hospice are lovely, dedicated people.
“It’s a big part of the community, I couldn’t imagine it not being there.”
“The staff and wonderful, they really are, and I consider myself lucky to be part of something so great.
“I’m always telling people who want to do something for charity that they should do it for St Clare’s, especially now.”
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Thursday 23 February 2012
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