BFP gives £20,445 grant to hospice (From Bucks Free Press)

BFP gives £20,445 grant to South Bucks Hospice

9:39am Monday 25th October 2010 in High Wycombe By Rebecca Cain

THE South Bucks Hospice which helps more than 450 patients a year is celebrating after winning a whopping £20,445 grant from the Bucks Free Press.

The hospice will use the money to buy a new van to transport goods between their shops and warehouse, which raises money to run the hospice.

The charity applied for £6,500 from the Gannett Foundation- the charitable arm of Newsquest, which owns the Bucks Free Press, for money towards the van but was awarded the whole cost.

Tony Hardware, chief executive of the South Bucks Hospice, said: “Our hospice support vehicle is a vital lifeline to the well-being of our seven shops in the area as well as supplying our off-site Lymphoedema Clinic in Hazlemere.

“We are extremely thankful to the Gannett Foundation for their generous support in the purchase of our new vehicle and at a time when finding extra funding of this type is all the more difficult to generate.”

The organisation started in 1986 and cares for the sick and people with life-limiting illnesses from within the South Bucks catchment area.

The current Hospice Support Vehicle was purchased in 2005 and service bills are increasing. Without the van the shop network could not run and the hospice would have to close.

The Hospice Day Care Centre is in Pusey House, Amersham Road and a separate clinic was created for treating patients with lymphoedema at Cedar Barn, Hazlemere in January 1997.

The new, bigger van will be able to transport larger items between the seven shops and the warehouse in Marlborough Estates, West Wycombe Road.

Manager of logistics, Bob Hazell, 63, said they also recycle goods which they cannot sell for any reason.

He said: “If we can get one a bit bigger we can replace this ageing one- minimise our journey times as we can carry more and cut fuel costs. It is going to make such a difference.”

Mr Hazell is a retired bank manager and wanted to give something back. He said: “It puts something back into life. I really admire the work the hospice do.”

John Green, 51, and his wife Mary,54 from Downley are volunteers who help sort the recycled goods at the warehouse and take and pick up items from the shops.

Mrs Green said: “I love it. You are going out meeting people, helping people who are ill.”

Just under 40 applications were sent in to the Bucks Free Press for Gannett Foundation grants and nationally hundreds were sent in from other areas. The board of trustees met on October 14 to choose the final successful applicants to receive grants.

No other Bucks organisations were awarded grants this time around, although several have been successful on previous occasions.