Celebration Prize Draw raised £57,000 in it’s milestone 40th year
There’s nothing quite like taking part in a prize draw, especially if you know your contribution is helping a local charity to provide valuable care and support for people in your community.
Pilgrims Hospices celebrates 40 years of end-of-life care, and is delighted to announce the Celebration Prize Draw raised an incredible £57,000 for patient care across east Kent.
Shiralee Riddell, Pilgrims Lottery Manager said: “It’s a milestone year for the hospices, and with the support of the thousands of people who purchased tickets, and took part in our Celebratory 40th Prize Draw; we know we’re helping even more people to live well in every moment, in their own homes and in our hospice wards.”
Congratulations to our big prize winners:
Mrs V from Ashford winning £2,040
Mr F from Herne Bay winning £1,040
Miss P from Canterbury winning £540
100s of smaller cash prizes were won, with all lucky prize winners receiving their cheques before Christmas
Shiralee added: “We would also like to thank all of our members new and old. More than 3,000 additional or new entries have been taken out to support your local hospices in this last year alone. We now have more than 21,000 members thanks to our fabulous team, and the tremendous support for our wonderful hospices from the community.
It’s a milestone year for the hospices
Shiralee, Pilgrims Lottery Manager
“Our lucky winners across the year have told us of the difference their wins have made to them, from long awaited travel plans to finally see loved ones, to parties for those big birthdays and anniversaries, to treating family and friends. All delighted and pleasantly surprised to have a win whilst supporting your very special Pilgrims Hospices. Over 5,500 cash prizes have been sent out in the last year alone.
“Thank you to all who treated loved ones, bought tickets, promoted products, collected and paid subscriptions, sold scratch cards and joined our weekly Lottery. We really couldn’t do it without you.”
£25 pays for one full hour of compassionate care by a specialist nurse. Together, we really do make a difference.
Each year Pilgrims Hospices give care and comfort to thousands of people in east Kent who are coming to terms with an illness that sadly cannot be cured. The charity support patients to live life as well as possible until the very end, free from pain and distress.
Care is provided from three hospice sites in Ashford, Canterbury and Thanet, as well as in patients’ own homes. To offer these services to patients and their families, the charity must raise £11 million each year from the generous local community.
6th February 2023
Using technology to support caregivers of people with motor neurone disease
Pilgrims Hospices is working with researchers at King’s College London to help identify family caregivers of patients with motor neurone disease (MND) who might benefit from regular contact with a peer supporter.
Peer support is the provision of emotional and informational support from people who have experienced the same health problem and have similar characteristics to those receiving support. The peer support is a 12-week programme where the caregiver will have online contact with their peer supporter at least once a week, using an easy-to-use app called aTouchAway, very similar to WhatsApp.
Talking to a person who has been there, and is able to share their own experiences, offers real hope to individuals who may not have any at that particular point in their life.”
A recipient of peer support
This study, funded by Marie Curie and the MND Association, islooking at the impact that caring has on wellbeing and aims to understand how user-friendly and acceptable the online peer support programme is to family carers in the study. As it is a randomised controlled trial, participants will be randomised to receive either the programme or their usual support.
Caregivers might be suitable to take part in the programme if they:
Are 18 or over
Are caring for someone with MND who is being considered for or receiving assistance for breathing, coughing or receiving feeding via a tube
Are able to speak and read English
Have access to the internet and a computer, tablet or smartphone
The team is also looking to train further peer-supporters to assign to a caregiver on the 12-week programme. They would be interested to hear from people whohave had lived experience as a carer for someone with MND and feel they could offer this support to a current carer.
If you would like to find out more about the project, contact Charlotte Brigden, Research Facilitator on 01227 812 625 or email [email protected].
Alternatively, you can contact the study team directly at: [email protected]
Pilgrims Hospices cares for thousands of local people each year, free of charge, during the most challenging time in their lives. They offer care and support in people’s own homes, in the community and in their inpatient units as well as running a 24-hour advice line.
1st February 2023
Time to Create: Flowers and fruit bubble wrap art
Using unconventional items like bubble wrap can be a fun and inventive way to develop your skills, create different effects within your artwork, and build up a bank of useful resources that can help you when creating new pieces.
When planning our creative, art-based groups, we like to think outside the box and discover new ways of being creative. Our group painted on bubble wrap and used it like a stamp to print a design onto paper.
Let’s get crafty
What you’ll need
Scissors
Paper or card
Paint brushes
Bubble wrap
Paint (poster or acrylic)
You can use real fruit, flowers from your garden, or images from the internet as inspiration for your creations. Simply paint your bubble wrap, then press your object onto it to transfer the paint, and finally stamp your object onto paper or other material.
If you don’t want to paint fruit or flowers, try creating something else with the bubble wrap print. We used plain white paper, but you can use any colour, as long as the your paints are thick enough to make an impact.
If you’d like to know more about Pilgrims Hospices’ Wellbeing services, email our team with any questions at [email protected] or call the Pilgrims Hospices Advice Line on 01233 504 133.
Pilgrims Hospices mark National Grief Awareness Week 2022
In October 2019, The Good Grief Trust launched National Grief Awareness Week at the Houses of Parliament in Westminster. The campaign aims to raise awareness of the impact of grief, normalise conversations about it, and create a unified voice for all bereavement support services in the UK. Pilgrims Hospices was delighted to attend and help to spread the word about its Stepping Stones bereavement support programme, which is available to any adult in east Kent.
Three years on, in December 2022, Pilgrims hosted its own awareness event at the Ann Robertson Centre in Canterbury. It provided an opportunity for bereavement services from across east Kent to come together, network and share ideas about how they can support local people who are grieving.
“We were really keen to create an opportunity for fellow bereavement support providers to come together during National Grief Awareness Week, to explore and understand how the services we all offer can best support anyone in east Kent who is grieving. The event proved both enlightening and positive. It allowed us all to gather new information, network with others providing specialist support and, importantly, signpost bereaved people effectively in a timely manner.
“We hope to build on this event to engage with local stakeholders and the community, to ensure supporting bereaved people effectively is everyone’s business.”
The feedback from attendees was positive, too:
“Thank you so much for inviting me to the event. It was very interesting.”
“I just wanted to thank you again for putting on such a great event and inviting us to come along; we took a huge amount from it, and hopefully we were able to provide some helpful information to the charities present.”
We hope to build on this event to engage with local stakeholders and the community, to ensure supporting bereaved people effectively is everyone’s business.
Annie Hogben, Expert Volunteer Project Lead
The event was attended by seven local bereavement support organisations, plus an independent celebrant and an independent funeral director:
Pilgrims Hospices cares for thousands of local people each year, free of charge, during the most challenging time in their lives. They offer care and support in people’s own homes, in the community and in their inpatient units as well as running a 24-hour advice line.
