Hospice bags funds from Tesco’s community grant scheme

We’re offering a year of free ‘feel good’ therapy sessions for patients and carers, thanks to a grant from Tesco’s Bags of Help scheme.

The £3090 grant will be used to provide sessions in the hospice’s Limes Day Therapy Unit, which provides care and support for people with life-limiting illnesses, and their loved ones. The free activities will include seated exercise to music, yoga, and art and craft activities.

Karen Watson, our Day Therapy Sister, said: “We never charge for our care, so we’re really grateful for a donation like this which allows us to run these activities.

“Our job is to ensure that patients feel as comfortable as possible here and these ‘feel good’ sessions will help us to do that. Thank you to Tesco and all the kind customers who voted for us to receive this funding.”

Bags of Help is run in partnership with environmental charity Groundwork, and sees grants raised from the sale of carrier bags awarded to thousands of local community projects every year. Since launching in 2015, it’s provided more than £40 million to over 9,700 projects.

Tesco customers get the chance to vote for three different groups each time they shop. Every other month, when votes are collected, three groups in each of Tesco’s regions are awarded funding.

Alec Brown, Tesco’s Head of Community, said: “Bags of Help has been a fantastic success and we’ve been overwhelmed by the response from customers. It’s such a special scheme because it’s local people who decide how the money will be spent in their community. We can’t wait to see the projects come to life.”

Groundwork’s National Chief Executive, Graham Duxbury, said: “Bags of Help continues to enable local communities up and down the UK to improve the local spaces and places that matter to them. We are pleased to be able to be a part of the journey.”

To find out more about the Limes Day Therapy Unit, click here.

Photo shows Karen Watson (centre) with Michele Jackson (left) and Margot Seal (right)