St Richard’s Hospice is bidding to bag a massive cash boost from the Tesco Bags of Help Centenary Grant initiative.
To celebrate Tesco’s Centenary, the supermarket has teamed up with Groundwork to deliver a special voting round of its community funding scheme which will see grants of £25,000, £15,000 and £10,000 awarded to community projects.
Three groups in each Tesco region have been shortlisted to receive the cash award and shoppers are being invited to head along to Tesco stores to vote for who they think should take away the top grant.
St Richard’s Hospice is one of the groups on the shortlist and will use the funding towards building an exercise and physiotherapy studio for patients with a serious progressive illness as part of the charity’s Build 2020 project.
St Richard’s Therapy Team Leader Gill Jubb said: “Exercise has been shown to be of great benefit the people we care for, and can relieve symptoms, reduce stress, anxiety and depression as well as improve sleep.”
She added, “The exercise studio will be purpose-built which means patients will be able to exercise with equipment that’s suited to their specific, unique need. Many patients find it difficult to join programmes in the wider community as their condition requires specialist supervision of exercise and they need more support. They also find it very helpful to meet others in a similar situation.”
Gill Jubb added, “We would ask Tesco shoppers to give us their support by voting for St Richard’s and help us make a big difference in improving patients’ quality of life through the exercise and physiotherapy studio.”
St Richard’s estimates the larger extended and redeveloped hospice will allow them to care for an additional 1,000 patients per year by 2012/22.
Voting is open in all Tesco stores in July and August and customers will cast their vote using a token given to them at the check-out in store each time they shop.
St Richard’s Hospice cares for adults with a serious progressive illness, improving their quality of life from diagnosis, during treatment and to their last days. It also supports their loved ones.
Each year the hospice team supports more than 3,300 patients, family members and bereaved people in Worcestershire.
St Richard’s is an independent charity and relies on donations and gifts in Wills for the majority of its income with 22% funded by the NHS.
The hospice is also raising funds for the Build 2020 Appeal and is part way through developing a bigger hospice, enabling more patients and families to be cared for in Worcestershire. The total cost for expanding and redeveloping the existing building in Wildwood Drive, Worcester, is £5.3m.