Halfway up a wild and wet Mount Snowdon, George Fletcher felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around to find a little girl aged around seven or eight waiting to hand him a £10 note.
She wasn’t the first or last to approach the 85-year-old from Ivybridge as he embraced the enormous challenge of climbing the highest mountain in Wales, accompanied by his son Marc, and family friend Mark Buckham, to raise funds for St Luke’s.
Behind the doors of St Luke’s you will find an intricate web of volunteers keeping our charity running.
This week is Volunteers’ Week (3-9 June), a chance to celebrate the wonderful team of volunteers that keep the cogs of St Luke’s turning. From working in our fleet of shops, to volunteering at our specialist unit, our volunteers are the backbone of our organisation.
“I truly believe that it was the care of St Luke’s that gave my dad the chance to meet his grandson and have six precious weeks with him.”
For every patient we care for, there are family or loved ones going through the unimaginable. Which is why memory making is so important to us. We want to give our patients the chance to live until they die, making precious memories with loved ones.
Jade Moore will be taking part in our Midnight Walk on Friday 12 July in memory of her father, Stuart Moore who died in September last year after being diagnosed with tonsil cancer.
When Marc Fletcher and his best mate started making plans to climb Mount Snowdon in memory of his late mother, Eve – shining a spotlight on the care she received from St Luke’s Hospice Plymouth – they asked his father, George, if he’d like to take the train up to meet them at the top and perhaps walk back down.
But the 85-year-old was having none of it. If they were climbing Snowdon – the highest peak in Wales – then George wasn’t going to take the easy option. For him it’s not only a way to honour his wife of 55 years, but also to raise funds for St Luke’s so that other local families can benefit from the compassionate doorstep urgent care service he had no idea existed until they experienced it themselves earlier this year.
Our volunteers are a truly inspiring bunch. They selflessly give up their time to help others, rarely getting time themselves to relax and unwind.
Which is why we were overjoyed when one of our dedicated volunteers was awarded a special mini-break thanks to Room to Reward, a volunteer-recognition charity who offer UK based breaks for hidden heroes.
Sheila Eccleston, who lives in Hooe, has been volunteering for half a day every week on our reception at our specialist unit at Turnchapel for the last decade, having celebrated her 10 year anniversary in November last year. It was her unwavering dedication and kind-hearted nature that meant she was nominated for the reward.
Green-fingered volunteers have been busy transforming the gardens at our specialist unit.
Ten volunteers from Plymouth and South Devon Community Forest generously gave their time and skills to clearing out the overgrown gardens at Turnchapel ahead of our new transformation works that will be commencing soon.
The team, who are employed by Plymouth City Council, operate across Plymouth, Dartmoor National Park and the South Hams, providing funding and support to plant trees that will help with biodiversity loss, increase pollinators, capture carbon and mitigate the effects of climate change.
St Luke’s has thrown open the doors of its spacious new charity shop in Ivybridge, welcoming customers keen to donate their good-quality, unwanted items and snap up bargains in aid of local hospice care. There to cut the ribbon at the store’s official opening on Monday 7 May 2024 was the town’s Mayor, Councillor Alan Spencer, who was joined by shop manager Dee Spiller and community nurses from St Luke’s at home team.
The focus for this year’s Hospice UK Dying Matters Awareness Week (6-12 May) is how we talk about death and dying. Senior palliative care nurse Cathryn Goodchild, lead clinical educator at St Luke’s, asks why people shy away from the “D” words and explains why correct language matters.
A pair of friends will be making every paddle count as they take on an epic challenge in aid of St Luke’s.
Ben Patrick and Gareth Thomas are embarking on a six day kayak challenge along the Jurassic coast today in memory of Ben’s sister Netha and Gareth’s mum.
They came, they ran, they did us proud. A record number of runners gave it everything they’ve got for St Luke’s in the Run Plymouth Half marathon, 10k and 5k on Sunday morning, raising more than £40,000 for our specialist care.
