Four hospices in Buckinghamshire have received a share of over £5,100 awarded by the Masonic Charitable Foundation. The hospices provide palliative care to children or adults with life-limiting condition.
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.
Willen Hospice, near Milton Keynes, received a grant of £3,147 to help them support patients aged 18 years and over with advanced life limiting illness live as full a life as possible in their remaining life span.
Rennie Grove Hospice Care, which provides 24/7 responsive care in patients’ own homes received a £1,000 grant. The charity is based in St Albans and works with children and adults.
Florence Nightingale Hospice’s children’s team, which operates from Stoke Mandeville Hospital, was given £500 to help their team of nurses and carers provide support for sick children and their family.
South Bucks Hospice, based in High Wycombe, also received a grant of £500.
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.
