Highland charities under the spotlight (From St Albans & Harpenden Review)

Highland charities under the spotlight

5:31pm Wednesday 25th June 2008

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The Highland Gathering on Sunday, July 13, aims to help local charities.

Harpenden Lions' Steve Gledhill looks at where the money will be going.

THIS year Harpenden Lions are dividing the proceeds from the Highland Gathering among three causes - the young, the injured members of the services, and the terminally ill.

Harpenden Lions' Life Skills Programme This life skills programme helps schools by boosting their personal, social, health and citizenship education funds. Whilst schools provide teaching for these essential skills, it is often a poor relation for funding as the schools' budgets become depleted by other subjects.

The Harpenden Lions believe this is a worthwhile cause to encourage improvement in the community skills of our youth. In recent years around £10,000 has been provided each year to schools in the Harpenden area. This enables them to improve the quality of delivery of such vital aspects as building self-confidence, anti-bullying, resisting peer pressure as well as drug awareness, understanding the feelings of others and citizenship.

More information can be found at www.harpenden-lions.co.uk/schools_support.php Help for Heroes (H4H) The objective of H4H is to raise £5m to build a swimming pool and new modern gym complex at Headley Court, Surrey (the tri-service rehabilitation centre) - particularly for injured service personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The full-sized swimming pool at Headley Court is needed to enable the wounded to benefit from swimming as part of their rehabilitation (rather than using the local leisure centre pool).

The money raised by H4H will benefit injured members of the Army, Navy, Royal Marines and the Royal Air Force. The colours of the wrist band represent the three services.

Help for Heroes is a registered charity, independent of the services.

It prides itself on low administration overheads which are subsidised by donors and suppliers.

For more information on Help for Heroes, telephone 0845 673 1760 or visit its website at www.helpforheroes.org.uk The Hospice of St Francis, Berkhamsted The Hospice of St Francis is an independent charity that provides professional support and care for people with a terminal illness across west Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

The inpatient unit is the only bedded unit which provides care for patients from across St Albans, Harpenden and the Markyate area.

The Berkhamsted-based Hospice of St Francis' bedded inpatient unit is for patients who come for short stays to improve difficult symptoms (such as pain, breathlessness, nausea or anxiety) and are able to return home.

If patients are reaching the end of their illness, then they can be cared for at the hospice until they die.

As well as nursing and medical care, it provides physiotherapy, occupational therapy, complementary therapies and family support.

Care is given at its purpose-built facilities, in the patient's home or via outreach care in local hospitals and nursing homes.

It provides tailored help for each individual patient's needs and works closely with them to support their choices.

Ultimately, it hopes to bring peace, comfort and dignity to people, helping them to live life to the full and also provide essential support for families and carers.

Its running costs in 2008 will be £3.3m and it continues to need funds.

This year it will receive only 19 per cent of its running costs from the NHS.

There are on average 130 patients being cared for at home by its specialist nurse team.

it has 700 volunteers who help it in all aspects of the hospice in the kitchen, in the units, with family support, gardening, fundraising, in the shops, and in the offices.

The hospice makes no charge for any of its services.

Any donation, large or small, is gratefully received and makes a real difference.

You can support the hospice financially in different ways.

It can offer information to companies, community groups or individuals wishing to support it.

Telephone the fundraising team on 01442 869555.

From small beginnings in 1979, the hospice has developed its services to provide total care every step of the way.

It has built a new hospice to care for more people and it urgently needs to raise funds to keep its services running.

The hospice opened in its new building, in Spring Garden Lane, Northchurch, Berkhamsted, in January 2007.

The Hospice of St Francis is an independent voluntary hospice and a registered charity, receiving around 20 per cent of its funding from the NHS.

It relies on the generosity of the local community to fund the remaining 80 per cent of its costs. This comes from many individuals, local businesses, trusts, schools, community groups, its shops, its lottery and gifts in wills.

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