Wakefield Hospice must strive each year to raise enough money to continue to provide its vital services.

It’s not a comfortable conversation to have and, for many, it’s not a conversation they will have until they are seeing the impact of the care first-hand, be it for a loved one or experiencing the care directly themselves.

Fortunately, the dedicated team at Wakefield Hospice has been doing more than talking about end of life care, in fact it has been providing high-quality palliative and end of life care across the Wakefield district for more than 30 years.

Only 25 per cent of the funding needed to run Wakefield Hospice comes from national funding, with the rest of the money coming from a vast array of fundraising efforts, a ‘complete travesty’ according to Wakefield Hospice’s CEO, Tina Turner.

“If you were to say to expectant parents that the quality and extent of service that supported them in that most precious time of their lives when their babies were being born was dependent on how many T-shirts the organisation was able to sell in a charity shop or how many people sponsored a recent 10km run it would be abhorrent,” she said.

“Yet we do that in end of life care. I find that completely shocking.

“We should be regarded as a vital contributor to the social and healthcare needs of the nation.”

While the pandemic highlighted the vital role that the UK’s healthcare professionals and the NHS play in our everyday lives, the impact it has had on hospices, both operationally and financially, has been challenging.

Wakefield Hospice recently launched its Resilience Appeal with the aim of raising £250,000 to help protect the charity’s finances, maintaining the offering of care provided to patients and their families across the region.

Ms Turner said: “We believe that everybody deserves to die with dignity.

“Our aim at the hospice is to provide the highest level of end of life and palliative care to our patients and to provide on-going support to their families too.”

In 2016, Ms Turner, took the helm at Wakefield Hospice. But just four years later she was faced with the most difficult of times in her career as the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

Despite Ms Turner’s praise for the tremendous efforts of the staff, and the vital community support that helps sustain the hospice’s operations, the impacts of the pandemic and now the current economic situation continue to disrupt its operations.

“It costs £4.3million to run the hospice each year, with more than £3million coming from charitable sources,” she said.

“This highlights just how important the support we receive from the local community, from events and from our retail department really is. We can’t thank them enough.

“We sincerely hope that our Resilience Appeal, along with the range of events, campaigns and activities associated with it, will provide an opportunity for everyone to get involved and play their part in raising vital funds for this equally vital service.”

A programme of Resilience Appeal fundraising events and campaigns will be announced soon.

The first ever ‘Wakefield Hospice Pyjama Day’ has already been added to the fundraising calendar for Friday, October 7, 2022 – with more information to follow in the coming weeks.

With the wide range of events, challenges and activities planned to take place, the hospice will be urging the Wakefield community to join in and provide support wherever they are able to, aiming to safeguard the future of one of the region’s most vital services.

For more information and to donate towards the appeal, please visit www.wakefieldhospice.org/resilience-appeal