Sue Ryder launches urgent fund-raising appeal

National healthcare charity Sue Ryder which runs St John’s Hospice in Moggerhanger near St Neots, is launching an urgent fundraising appeal.

The charity, which continues to play a vital role in the coronavirus effort, says it is experiencing a £2 million a month shortfall in funds.

Sue Ryder, which has been the main focus of The Hunts Post’s We Need To Talk campaign, is appealing to support its We Can’t Stop effort so that facilities like St John’s Hospice can continue to provide expert and compassionate end-of-life care.

Allison Mann, hospice director at St John’s Hospice, said: “Coronavirus has hit us hard. We received a wonderful response from our supporters to our emergency appeal earlier in the year. This, paired with the emergency funding that we received from the Government, covered our funding shortfall until the end of June 2020.

“Unfortunately, however, our struggle continues. Our fundraising events remain cancelled for the rest of this year and our high street shops have now closed for a second time.

“As we head into the winter months and coronavirus cases continue to rise we are expecting an increase in people needing end-of-life care.

“None of us expected this pandemic to go on for so long and clearly a monthly shortfall of £2 million is unsustainable for any charity, which is why we need to ask the public to help us.

“Sue Ryder St John’s Hospice is playing a vital part in the Coronavirus effort – all of the staff here want to use their skills, expertise and experience to help patients and their families in the months ahead as well continue to relieve the pressure on the NHS. However, in order to keep our services running through the winter and beyond we urgently need to secure more funding now.

“We know that times are tough for everybody at the moment, so please be reassured that every bit really does help and thank you very much from all of us.”

To support Sue Ryder visit: sueryder.org/winterappeal20.