Latest News from HospiceCare
We Welcome Vanessa to the Team
February 2025
Having lived and worked in Northumberland all her life Vanessa has been employed in business and community engagement roles in both the charity and commercial sectors. Vanessa worked for Post Office Ltd for 25 years managing both Alnwick and Morpeth Post Offices before moving on to be a PO Regional Manager in the North East. After leaving the Post Office, Vanessa worked in a variety of management roles such as Regional Manager for national Holiday Letting companies including Hoseasons and Travel Chapter, and as a Social Enterprise Coach for Northumberland County Council. She then moved into the Charity Sector managing a Food Project in Ashington. Having worked closely with HospiceCare North
Northumberland whilst Head of Community Engagement on behalf of Northumberland Estates, Vanessa is keen to use her extensive skills and experience to develop mutually beneficial business partnerships in Northumberland particularly as this is Hospicecare Northumberland’s 30th Anniversary year. She is looking forward to working with existing business partners and exploring new business partnership opportunities in her new role. Vanessa is about to launch a project called ‘Businesses that Care ' to raise £30K from 30 new business partnerships in 2025.
Beadnell WI Clothing Collection Day
26th February 2025
Hugh thanks to the members of Beadnell WI and Beadnell Community Volunteers who organised a clothing collection day. Beadnell WI member, Jen, said, "Thank you everyone who donated clothes for HospiceCare North Northumberland and towels for British Divers Marine Life Rescue ( Injured seals!) Take a bow! It was a fantastic response. I lost count of the number of people dropping off donations at the Coffee Morning in Beadnell WI this morning and then there were all those bags we collected beforehand. The photos only show half the number of bags of clothes but you can see how full the van was. The bags of towels were separate and had a great response too. Thank you to Beadnell WI and St Ebbas Church too." The donated clothes are being sent to our new Flagship Store, Tweed & Threads, Marygate Berwick, to raise funds for HospiceCare North Northumberland. Thank you to all who donated and to the hardworking volunteers who organized the event.
The White Swan Hotel, Alnwick
20th February 2025
​This week, the White Swan Hotel presented HospiceCare North Northumberland with a cheque for a whopping £2,265.27 - the proceeds from their 'Swan Go Bingo' night. On handing over the cheque, the team said: "We are so proud to be handing over a cheque for £2,265.27 to HospiceCare North Northumberland today. This incredible amount was raised during our Swan-go-Bingo Night at The White Swan on 7th February, an event that brought together so many generous people for a truly special cause. The White Swan team chose this charity as it holds a special place in the hearts of many of our staff, and we are overwhelmed by the kindness and support shown by our community. A huge thank you to local businesses and friends who donated prizes to help make this possible. Your generosity made all the difference! And of course, a massive thank you to everyone who came along, played bingo, and contributed on the night—we couldn’t have done it without you!"
Taking Silver at the Annual LENS Awards
7th February 2025
We are enormously proud to announce that our short family film, Remembering Margy, won Silver at the prestigious annual LENS Awards, which were held in London last night. Huge thanks to Chris Jackson for producing another outstanding film, and a very special thank you to Michael, who generously shared his personal story of the care and support HospiceCare North Northumberland delivered to him and his wife, enabling her to die at home, as she had wished. You can watch our award-winning film via the link below.
We Welcome Nicola Jones
15th January 2025
Nicola has been appointed as our new Events & Community Fundraising Manager, bringing with her extensive knowledge in the Events sector which includes large-scale, exciting, and internationally known events. Nicola has worked for a charity, facilitated private events, and worked in a Care Home, all skills and experiences that she feels will benefit the future of HospiceCare fundraising events. A local lass born and bred in Alnwick, Nicola has a passion for the community and brings a ‘let’s do this’ attitude.
Our New Flagship Retail Store Opens in Berwick
Wednesday 12th December 2024
This week, our new retail store, Tweed & Threads, at 59 Marygate Berwick opened! Jean, Tara, and Julie Grey 'cut the ribbon', marking an exciting new era for HospiceCare North Northumberland in Berwick. The first customers were greeted with lively songs from the Holy Trinity First School year 4 choir! Main image (Left): The Grey family with Lucy Bell, Head of Income Generation for HospiceCare North Northumberland.
Our latest Family Story Film is Released
20th October 2024
We're excited to announce that our latest family story film is now live. In this short film, we hear from the Grey family who share with us the impact of having HospiceCare's Hospice at Home team care for their Dad/Husband to enable him to die at home, which was his wish. The film has been sponsored in its entirety by The Northumberland Estates and produced by award-winning film/video producer, Chris Jackson.
Time to Celebrate
17th October 2024
This week we surprised our lovely Bereavement Support Coordinator, Maxine, with a celebration for her 20 years' service with HospiceCare North Northumberland. We feasted on party food and memories of the last 20 years. Maxine said "I love what I do, my work is an absolute privilege" Please joining us in congratulating Maxine.
We're Opening a New Store in Berwick
3rd October 2024
HospiceCare North Northumberland has been operating charity stores since their inaugural opening in Berwick in 2015, which have proved to be a significant revenue stream. As a strategic move towards expanding their income base, the organisation has declared plans to open a new charity store on Berwick High Street later this year. Chris Orife, HospiceCare North Northumberland’s CEO said “As a local independent charity we need to generate around 95% of our annual income so our strategy for care depends on sustainable growth funding to ensure the next 30 years of HospiceCare North Northumberland is as successful as the
last 30 years. Income from our retail stores is pivotal to the implementation of our strategy which is to provide care to more people in our dispersed communities, where access to healthcare can be challenging. There is an ever-increasing demand for our services which means we have to remain agile and flexible to be able to support this ongoing demand. We know that people are living longer and with that, living for a longer period of time with life-limiting conditions. For example, we have identified a need for access to local Counselling services in particular, services for Children in pre and post bereavement phases and we have an income strategy in place to eventually be able to offer this support.
Research shows there are currently 944,000 people in the UK living with Dementia – a number that will quadruple by 2040. According to the Older People Population Information System (POPPI) it is anticipated that the number of people living with a dementia diagnosis in North Northumberland will increase from 5,396 in 2020 to over 7,000 by 2027. At HospiceCare, we recognise the profound impact dementia can have on a person and their loved ones. This challenging journey can affect all aspects of a person’s life as well as those around them, and everyone experiences dementia differently. Our Dementia Support Services are being developed with the aim of providing the majority of care in patients’ own homes and wraparound services such as Physiotherapy and nutritional advice at our wellbeing hubs across North Northumberland. We are working collaboratively with our GP practices where services can be joined up making it easier for patients to navigate and benefit from the support they need.
We anticipate our running costs to be circa £1.5m next year - up from £1.3m this year. Our retail stores have, and will continue to be, a vital source of income for the Hospice and present a key area for income growth. Every penny spent in our stores contributes to delivering care to patients in need in North Northumberland. The current Berwick store has made a huge contribution to the success of the Hospice over the last nine years and we are grateful to our shop managers and volunteers for their tireless work. However, to increase our retail income we need to make sure that we are centrally placed to attract more customers and this is why we are opening our new shop on Berwick High street. Our current shop in Berwick is some distance from the town’s main thoroughfare and this impacts on the funds we are able to raise from the store.
We anticipate our existing store at Hazel Marsden House, will be utilised in providing discounted goods for a period of time as our new High Street store starts to trade before Christmas 2024. It’s an exciting opportunity for HospiceCare North Northumberland and we are delighted that our retail expansion programme has started with Berwick Town.”
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Image above signing the lease L-R Harry Chrisp Gibson & Co. Partner with John Cooke Trustee HospiceCare North Northumberland. Back L-R Lucy Bell Head of Income Generation, Mark Peters Retail Operations Manager, and Chris Orife CEO.
North Northumberland Voluntary and Community Awards 2024
25th September 2024
Super-excited to announce we won the Commercial Business Support Award for our charity stores and our recently retired Bereavement Support volunteer, Enid, won The Lady Rose Crossman Lifetime Achievement Award at the North Northumberland Voluntary Forum Awards at Berwick Rugby Club this evening. We are absolutely buzzing! It was truly inspiring to see so many incredible individuals and organisations being recognised for their dedication and hard work in making our community a better place.
Alnwick Round Table Donates £5,000
27th September 2024
Members of the Alnwick Round Table presented HospiceCare with a cheque for £5,000 - the proceeds from their annual Beer Festival held in August. On presenting the cheque Alnwick Round Table said "We would just like to say once again a HUGE THANK YOU to absolutely everyone who attended Bank Holiday August weekend, whether it was to visit Alnwick Markets, Alnwick Beer Festival any of the amazing food vendors in the marketplace or passing by to see HospiceCare North Northumberland and their amazing team face painting away all weekend! Special thanks to all our event sponsors whose generous support enabled more of the profits to come directly to the Hospice." Pictured with Alnwick Round Table are Tracey Sprigg Alnwick Markets Manager
Our New Business Partnership
23rd August 2024
We are delighted to announce that HospiceCare North Northumberland is collaborating with the Alnwick Playhouse who have donated screen time to show our new short film promoting our work across the communities of North Northumberland. Our film will be shown from tomorrow (24th August 2024) at every film screening.
Appointment of a Specialist Dementia Nurse
15th August 2024
Amy (pictured) has been appointed as our new Specialist Dementia Nurse (RGN). She is passionate about promoting a good quality of life for those living with dementia and is looking forward to developing our existing dementia support services in North Northumberland.
A Visit from our New Local MP
13th August 2024
This week HospiceCare North Northumberland welcomed David Smith, Member of Parliament for North Northumberland, to our Wellbeing Centre, Alnwick. “The Hospice Movement has played and continues to play an important – if sometimes underappreciated – role in the health and wellbeing of our society. It was for this reason that I was delighted to visit HospiceCare North Northumberland in Alnwick, and to find out more about the vital role that the team is playing in supporting people with end-of-life care right across North Northumberland.” David Smith, Member of Parliament for North Northumberland
Mayor of Berwick Adopts HospiceCare
29th July 2024
We are delighted to announce that HospiceCare North Northumberland has been chosen as the Berwick Mayor’s charity of the year 2024-2025. John Robertson, Mayor, said “We are delighted to be supporting HospiceCare as our chosen charity because the clinical care they are delivering in Berwick is the biggest in the region. We are proud to support this vital provision to our local community” In just the last year, HospiceCare delivered over 1,000 hours of Hospice at Home end-of-life and respite care to families in Berwick, supported 31 local clients with Bereavement Support, and delivered over 170 hours of activity to keep the person with a Dementia mobile for as long as possible.​​
A New Van for HospiceCare
1st August 2024
​In 2023, the Hospice applied for funding to the Mark Benevolent Fund to purchase a new Retail/Events van after their last one failed its MOT due to its age and mileage. In response, the M.B.F. Trustees agreed to support their application with a gift of £27,300 to purchase a new van. On presenting the cheque to HospiceCare Archie Torrance, President of the Mark Benevolent Fund said “We are delighted to be able to support this vital local charity. Our grant has enabled them to purchase a new van which will assist them to move equipment around the local area and move stock and donations between their charity shops. The van logo also helps enhance the company's profile in the local communities. I want to extend my grateful thanks to the support of the Mark Masters Masons’ family and friends because, without their support, none of this would have been possible.”​ Pictured L-R: Paul Hilditch, Brian Hagelburg, John Park, Archie Torrance President of the MBF, Emma Arthur, Fundraising Manager HospiceCare, Raymond A. Walton Provincial Grand Master, Jeffrey Ormston, Richard Northey, Hugh Macleod.
Filming in Berwick
30th July 2024
Yesterday we were on location in and around Berwick Town and at our Wellbeing Centre, Hazel Marsden House, to film our annual family story which features a local family who received our support. The film production has been kindly sponsored by one of our local businesses. Thanks to Chris Jackson and Cameraman, Steve, for producing another powerful and inspiring story we can share with our supporters. The film will be released later in the year.
New Retail Appointment
10th July 2024
On his appointment, Mark said: “I am proudly serving as the Retail Operations Manager at Hospice Care North Northumberland. In this pivotal position, I oversee the operations of our three physical stores as well as our eBay store. My responsibilities encompass strategic planning, inventory management, sales optimisation, and fostering a positive customer experience for our local communities and beyond. I have worked within the retail industry for the last 23 years in a number of sectors, latterly coming from the luxury goods industry as a director of a jewellery business. I’m looking forward to being able to work together with the dedicated team around me and help the charity be able to deliver more care to those most in need.”
