Speaker Meeting Report

The Club welcomed Rebecca Futrall and Leah Norman from St. Michael’s Hospice to this meeting.

 Rebecca, who as Fundraising Manager has been with the hospice for two and a half years, and has been in the charity sector for 20 years, gave a passionate and inspired talk about the wide range of services that St. Michael’s provides for residents in Hastings and Rother.  St. Michaels based in Upper Maze Hill in St. Leonards was opened by the Duchess of Kent on 24^th April 1987 and is committed to providing high quality, responsive palliative person-centred care and bereavement support, and working collaboratively with others to improve end of life care for all.

 Rebecca said that the hospice is there to support everybody who accesses their services, and the charity has a package that can be tailored to individual needs.  The clinical team, and all who work with the hospice, consider what they do is a privilege.  Rebecca told a true story to illustrate vividly how the hospice looks after patients.

 Rebecca finished her talk by saying that the hospice has to raise £14,400 every day to provide its services.  The NHS funds one third of the running costs through grants plus £1.6 million comes from Legacies.  The hospice is also very active in its fundraising with the next event ‘WALK WITH US’ taking place on Saturday 1^st and Sunday 2^nd October – to find out more about this event and future events, check out the website www.stmichaelshospice.com.

 Past President John Cooper gave the vote of thanks.