AN EMERGENCY appeal has been launched to make sure a hospice charity gets through the pandemic without having to turn anyone away.
The Myton Hospices needs to raise £500,000 in this financial year to avoid reducing its vital services.
The charity, which runs hospices in Warwick, Rugby and Coventry, has launched a special friends and supporters scheme called ‘My Myton’.
Launching the initiative, Myton Hospices CEO Ruth Freeman said: “While it is important that we protect the NHS and care homes, it is also important that hospices are not forgotten.
“Thankfully local people are incredibly generous – 80 per cent of our income comes from fund-raising. But without our mass participation events and with our shops closed for long periods there has been a sharp fall in income. Also making our hospices Covid-secure has meant additional costs.
“We have made savings of £1.5million by streamlining our support activities in order to protect frontline services for patients and families, but we urgently need just under half a million more income.
“We are asking people to support their local hospice by becoming members of ‘My Myton’ and donating £10 a month for 12 months to help us through this extraordinary period.
“If 4,000 people in Coventry and Warwickshire become supporters for 12 months, this year’s funding gap will disappear, and Myton will have survived the worst of the pandemic with our vital services intact. After that, we hope normal fundraising will have resumed.”
Last year, Myton supported more than 1,800 patients and their families in its Inpatient Units, with counselling, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, a ‘Living Well’ programme, and in people’s homes through the ‘Myton at Home’ service.
The hospices have nearly 300 members of staff including the medical teams, and are helped by more than 1,000 volunteers.
The initiative was launched at the charity’s Santa Dash, a virtual event this year, supported by Father Christmas and his reindeer, and Warwick and Leamington MP Matt Western – the first person to sign up to the scheme.
Mr Western said: “The Myton Hospices are invaluable for so many families in our area. After a difficult year, I urge residents to donate as much as they possibly can to help protect their long term future.
“Charities across the region are struggling. Myton is very much part of our community fabric, and is in need of extra funding to recover from the pandemic with all of its services intact.
“Please consider signing up to the ‘My Myton’ programme this Christmas to safeguard the future of such a vital charity.”
Those who join ‘My Myton’ in December will receive a butterfly pin badge, and everyone who signs up will receive a special ‘thank you’ card and an update newsletter emailed each quarter.
To sign up to the scheme, visit www.mytonhospice.org/MyMyton or call 01926 358383.
