Birmingham St Mary’s Hospice and John Taylor Hospice Birmingham have recently merged to form The Hospice Charity Partnership. Together, they provide expert palliative and end of life care to people and their families living with life-limiting illnesses across Birmingham, right up to the very end of life.
After another difficult year of fundraising due to the impact of Covid-19, The Hospice Partnership approached family owned Volkswagen Van Centre Birmingham to ask if they would participate in their tree-cycling campaign, to help them raise funds to provide free care across Birmingham to those who need it most.
This involved lending a van and two drivers volunteering their time along with a trustworthy Volkswagen Crafter van, on the weekend of Saturday 15 January, to travel round north Birmingham collecting Christmas trees from local homes, ready for recycling.
Wayne Ollerenshaw Head of Business and Jerry O’Shea, Service Driver, were only too happy to answer the call!
Jerry said,
“Both my parents died of cancer so this was a great opportunity to give something back to a great cause. “
Wayne added,
“For me, John Taylor Hospice looked after my Auntie Chris towards the end of her battle with cancer. Chris was such a huge part of our family and the team there looked after her so well. When I saw that the event was to raise money for the Hospice and the service they provide it felt natural to jump in and do my bit.
We both felt it was a pleasure to get involved and will more than likely be a part of it every year now given the opportunity.”
At the time of writing this, the combined team had already collected 5,500 trees and have raised over £100,000! This is a wonderful achievement for everyone who participated and is a fantastic contribution to the funding of these vital services.