Fundraiser Sean Erwood with a recycled Christmas tree
Saint Francis Hospice is hoping to raise £30,000 for patient care once the festivities are over by collecting and recycling your real Christmas tree in exchange for a donation.
The hospice is calling on Havering and Brentwood residents to Pre-register their real Christmas trees for recycling. The trees will then be collected over four days from 6th to 9th January 2023.
“Let’s make this year a huge success and secure the future of our hospice, together,” said Charlotte Winder from the Saint Francis Hospice Fundraising team.
“We’re so excited that our Christmas Tree Recycling campaign is back in the New Year and we’re hoping to collect even more trees than last year and raise £30,000.
“The only way we can achieve this is to make sure everyone who is celebrating with a real Christmas tree knows we are here to recycle their tree once the festivities are over.”
The hospice isn’t charging people to collect their Christmas tree but as a charity, it relies heavily on donations to fund its care and support to the local community.
“Each donation makes a huge difference to our patients and their families as we help them when they need it the most,” said Charlotte.
A £25 donation could pay for one hour of care on our wards, £10 could care for art materials for bereaved children and £54 could pay for an hour of care in a patient’s home.
“Saint Francis Hospice is all about the people we care for,” said Charlotte.
“Helping to give people a quality of life and to be as comfortable and pain free as possible.
“Our staff help people to hold on to everything and everyone they love. They can count on us for specialist knowledge of illness, pain and symptom relief, dying and death.
“We are only able to provide this service because of fundraising campaigns such as Christmas Tree Recycling.”
A very special thank you to 121 Systems who will be in charge of logistics on the day by mapping out the routes for volunteers to collect trees and to West and Co for sponsoring the campaign.
So how can you get involved? Visit the hospice’s website at www.sfh.org.uk/tree to register your tree and find out more.
When you sign up, you will be asked how many trees you would like collected, make a donation and you will be added to the hospice’s collection list.
You can also help by donating your time to helping to collect in the community. If you have a van and can spare a few hours, email Charlotte at charlottewinder@sfh.org.uk
