A HOSPICE which faced an uncertain future earlier in the year has credited the community as providing light in the darkness.

St Mary’s Hospice in Ulverston was concerned about its future after its upcoming fundraising events were all cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The hospice was also forced to shut its charity shops as well as the cafe at its Ford Park Crescent base - all key sources of income.

However, Val Stangoe, chief executive of St Mary’s Hospice said it was the generosity of the kind-hearted public which had allowed the hospice to survive lockdown.

She said: “Thank you to all of you who have helped us financially. Because of your previous generosity we started this year knowing that, if we had to, we could survive 12 months in lockdown.

“But your generosity has not stopped and you’ve made sure that we’re sitting here now knowing that we look after the people who need us for a good while yet.

“I’m thankful to live somewhere where the community came together so powerfully.

“Whether that was volunteers making sure that everyone got the food they needed, local businesses delivering things to people’s doors, or our support hub in Barrow.

“There was so much light in our darkness.”

Ms Stangoe also expressed thanks to the team of workers who went above and beyond during testing times.

She said: “I would like to thank everyone in our amazing local health and social care system - staffing our hospitals, nursing our care homes, GP surgeries, ambulance stations, and social care. Everyone who has been there day and night for the last month helping people who needed it.

“And as part of that I would like to include our own clinical staff. I have never seen our nursing teams more flexible and adaptable to make sure they could do whatever it was that people needed.

“I’d also like to remember our bereavement team, many of them volunteers, and our living well team. They too have worked continually to find new ways to be able to reach out to people when face-to-face wasn’t possible.