Doncaster hospice team's thanks for funding as founding charity set to close

St John’s Hospice in Balby officially opened in 1992, following a seven-year fundraising campaign by Doncaster Cancer Detection Trust (DCDT), which has revealed it will wind up its charitable activities this year.

The hospice team invited DCDT chair Yvonne Woodcock and members involved in its inception, to a special event to say a formal thank you for their support in raising more than £2 million in capital to build and equip St John’s Hospice, then a further £1.5 million to build the adjoining St John’s Information and Support Centre, which opened in 2004.

St John’s Hospice Service Manager Sam Edwards said: “We are immensely proud of the services and care we provide to patients and families in Doncaster at St John’s Hospice, but without the hard work and long-term support from DCDT over so many years, we wouldn’t be where we are today.

“When we heard they’d taken the decision to close down their charity, we wanted to do something to acknowledge their support and celebrate their friendship over so many years.”

The DCDT members enjoyed coffee and cakes at St John’s Hospice and took a trip down memory lane thanks to scrapbooks collected by founding DCDT member the late Jeannette Fish, which are crammed full of press cuttings detailing the hundreds of fundraising feats which helped raise the much needed millions required to build the Hospice and Information Centre.

Mrs Fish, who died in 2018, was at the forerfront of the DCDT for many years, organising a string of fundraising events, raising millions of pounds and keeping the hospice campaign firmly in the public eye in Doncaster.

DCDT Chair Yvonne Woodcock said: “I’d like to pay tribute to Jeannette Fish and all the members of DCDT – past and present – for their commitment over the years.

“As well as building and equipping the hospice, we’ve donated 80 pieces of front-line cancer equipment alongside millions of pounds worth of facilities and medical expertise in Doncaster over the past 53 years, we’ve spent every penny on the best possible causes and truly feel we are ending on a high.”

She added: “But we wouldn’t have been able to do anything without the generosity and support of the people of Doncaster.

“Our hospice fundraising came on the back of the miners’ strike and pit closures, which hit our communities hard.

"The largest single donation we ever received was £10k, which demonstrates how many people put their hands in their pockets and donated whatever they could to provide a local hospice delivering the best possible palliative and end of life for their families and for future generations to come.”

St John’s Hospice is run by Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber NHS Trust (RDaSH) and is part of its Your Hearts and Minds charity.

For more information on how to support St John’s Hospice, please visit: www.yourheartsandminds.org.uk