Bedhampton care home residents participate in charity half-marathon to raise money for local hospice
Last week, a luxury care home in Bedhampton raised £575 for Rowans Hospice in Waterlooville by organising a charity half-marathon for residents, their families, and staff.
Portsdown View, which is part of the Connaught Care Collection, held the race on its grounds at St Agnes Close. Participants were asked to run laps around the home's garden one at a time, before symbolically 'passing the baton' on to the next in line.
Together, they managed to complete 1,000 laps (about 38 miles), smashing the original target of 352 laps. They also succeeded in raising £575 through donations from the public, which will go towards supporting Rowans Hospice's outstanding work in palliative care. Indeed, the project was such a success that other homes in the Connaught Care Collection will soon follow suit.
The idea for the half-marathon came from a staff member at another Connaught home who recently had his own experience dealing with hospices. Impressed and moved by the quality of care on offer, he wanted to give something back by raising money for the sector. Stephen Orwin, Life Enrichment & Wellbeing Coordinator who helped him organise the project, says:
"When my colleague first came to me with the idea for this project, I was instantly hooked. We are always looking for ways to give something back to the community, and I can't think of a better way to do that than supporting local hospices. This has been a real team effort, and the whole team has outdone itself in making this dream a reality".
This comes at a time when hospice funding is woefully inadequate in many areas, with a group of charities recently calling for the government to step in after they couldn’t raise the funds needed to operate through NHS grants. Across the country, hospices are desperately looking for ways to fill a £77m funding gap in the sector, which is impacting their ability to offer quality end-of-life care.
Initiatives like this could play a role in helping close the gap, and Connaught hopes it will inspire other organisations to adopt similar schemes. Pippa Mafunga, General Manager at Portsdown View, offers her thoughts:
"We believe quality care towards the end of life is a right that no one should go without. We are therefore delighted to be supporting Rowans Hospice, which consistently does amazing work in some very challenging circumstances. I am also very proud of our team of runners, which ended up being genuinely intergenerational! Everyone put in an incredible performance, especially our residents who refused to let age be a barrier to success".
By the end of August, Connaught Care's four homes across the country will each hold their own charity half-marathon, raising funds for a local hospice in each location.