Hospice Care Week – October 2024

From 7 – 13 October, we are celebrating Hospice Care Week, a campaign led by Hospice UK. This year, it is about shining the spotlight on Hospice Retail and the vital role it plays in funding hospice services.

BBC Points West coverage

Our amazing Retail volunteers

Jean

We are indebted to our community, our staff, and our army of volunteers like Jean and Dorothy to support the smooth running of our shops, helping us raise vital funds that ensure we can provide our care to the people in our community who need us.

Jean started volunteering with us after she retired from work and was seeking a meaningful way to spend her free time. After a friend mentioned they volunteered at our Devizes shop, she was enthusiastic to join the team too and now looks forward to her Tuesday morning shifts each week!

Dorothy

Dorothy recently celebrated her 90^th birthday and has been volunteering in our Bradford on Avon shop for an incredible 27 years!

Hospice Funding shortfall

However, alongside celebrating our volunteers, Hospice Care Week also aims to highlight the surprising reality that hospices now get more funding from selling second-hand goods in their shops than they do from governments. While it is amazing that hospice shops raise millions every year, save tones of items from landfill and provide affordable everyday items for our communities, it’s not right that government funding isn’t matching the needs of so many facing the end of life.

Get involved with Hospice Care Week!

If you would like to support Hospice Care Week, follow Dorothy House on any of our social media accounts and share our stories, speak with your workplace about supporting Hospice Care Week or simply chat about it with your friends and family. We need as many people as possible to hear how state hospice funding is falling short.

Our Bridge the Gap Appeal aims to address this gap in funding. We know that Dorothy House is only caring for just over half of the people estimated as having an end of life care need. We are calling for all Dorothy House Champions to help fundraise for your neighbourhood, ensuring your local community gets the care it deserves. Click here to find out how you can support the appeal.

If you would like to get involved with our shops, we are always looking for new volunteers! Find out about available opportunities here.