St MARY’S Hospice has raised £2,500 as part of the Heart of Ulverston Awards which is held in association with The Mail.

The charity offers palliative care to those with terminal illnesses and life limiting conditions in Barrow, Ulverston and the wider Furness area.

As part of the Heart of Ulverston Awards the charity held a ‘pay what you can’ raffle.

Each guest was given an envelope in which they put as much as they wanted to donate to St Mary’s.

The envelopes were then gathered in and winners were picked and awarded a variety of prizes.

These included a year-long subscription to Cumbria Life magazine, a £100 voucher for L’al Churrasco in Ulverston, and dinner for two at Storrs Hall Hotel, based on the edge of Windermere. 

Two rounds of golf at Furness Golf Club and a handmade poppy remembrance cushion from SusieShineDesigns were also among the prizes.

On the night St Mary’s raised £1,500 from donations entered into the raffle.
After which, Barclays offered to match £1,000 of the money raised, bringing the total to £2,500.

Charlotte Windle, Area Fundraiser at St Mary’s Hospice, said: “Thank you to everyone who donated, and to Barclays for agreeing to give £1,000.

“The community is the lifeblood of St Mary’s Hospice. 

“We rely heavily on the generosity of the South Lakes population as without their support we would struggle to provide the range of care and services to patients and their families when they need us the most.

"It is our 30th anniversary in 2019 and hopefully with the continued care from the local community and events like the Heart of Ulverston Awards, we can be here another 30 years.” 

St Mary’s first opened its doors in 1989 after being founded by Reverend Nick Gosswin, Mrs Margaret Berry, Mrs Clarissa Kavanagh and Lord Cavendish.

The hospice is based out of a large Victorian House in Ulverston which was gifted to them by a prominent Ulverston shopkeeper, Mr Bob Wright.

It is still based there today, but it now also offers care for people in their own homes, runs shops in Barrow and recently opened a Living Well Centre in Barrow town centre.

This was done with the hope of being able to help even more people in the community.

It costs around three million pounds a year to run St Mary’s Hospice, with around 80 per cent of the costs being paid for by donations from the public. 

All the money brought in by fundraisers and sponsorship goes to help those with life limiting conditions as well as their families at the most difficult of times in their lives.

The Heart of Ulverston Awards, in association with The Mail, and organised by Ulverston business 32WestLtd, was held earlier this month at the Coronation Hall in Ulverston.


The awards, sponsored by GSK Ulverston, and supported by a range of local businesses, recognised the many unsung heroes who positively impact on the Ulverston community.