insideKENT Magazine Issue 99 - June / July 2020 | Page 51

CHARITY
Hospices of Hope Launches “Row-mania” event to help raise funds
for hospice nurses
Charity founder and executive director, Graham
Perolls, CMG, OBE, (now back at the helm after
recovering from the Covid-19 virus) has launched
Hospices of Hope’s latest fundraising challenge –
ROW-mania – to raise funds towards the salaries
of nurses for the hard-hit Hospice Casa Sperantei,
in Romania.
The distance from London to Romania is 1,500
miles and the charity is asking at least 150 people
to join in and help Graham cover this distance.
The ROW-mania challenge is to row for 10 hours
(an hour a day) and raise at least £100. You do not
have to leave home to do this. All you need is a boat
(either a rowing machine or an improvised model
– a couple of planks of wood and a couple of broom
handles will do!)
Graham has been leading the ROW-Mania
challenge since mid May using a child’s inflatable
dinghy and two pieces of wood found in the garden!
Explaining the reason for the challenge, sixty nine
year old Graham said: “If at least 150 people sign
up to the challenge and raise £100 each we would
be able to pay for a specialist hospice nurse in
Romania.
I understand that at present people’s main focus is
on the crisis facing the charity sector over here but
the situation in Romania and other countries where
we work is grave.
Our hospices are concentrating on home care visits
and in-patient care. An additional member in the
nursing team would make a significant difference to
the number of seriously ill patients we can care for.”
You can hear more about the great initiative from
5 year old Charlie from Sidcup, who has been rowing
across his paddling pool to raise funds.
To join ROW-mania sign up at
www.hospicesofhope.co.uk/rowmania or
alternatively you can sponsor Graham and view
more at www.facebook.com/hospicesofhope
Strictly’s Len Goodman supports air
ambulance KSS Coronavirus
emergency appeal
Former Strictly Come Dancing Judge,
Len Goodman, has been announced
as the latest supporter of the Air
Ambulance Kent Surrey Sussex (KSS)
Coronavirus Emergency Appeal. Len,
who lives in Kent, said that he is proud
to be supporting KSS and urged
members of the public to donate to the
charity’s Appeal – which has now
raised more than £250,000 nearing
the halfway mark of its initial
fundraising target.
Launched in April, the KSS Coronavirus Emergency Appeal needs to raise
at least £535,000. The funds will help the charity to continue providing its
vital life-saving services, alongside its frontline work to support in the fight
against Coronavirus.
A registered charity, KSS is reliant upon public donations for 89% of the
£14M it costs each year to operate its life-saving service. The additional costs
of maintaining its service safely at the current time are significant, with full
protection controls required for crews, patients and the aircraft.
In a video message recorded for KSS, Len Goodman said: “I am proud to be
supporting the KSS Coronavirus Emergency Appeal.They provide life-saving
work every day of the year but they have now been called to join the fight
against coronavirus alongside the NHS. They need your urgent support now.
The more you can support them, the more lives they can help to save.”
Donations can be made online at www.aakss.org.uk/appeal
Housebuilder’s funding for
multi-sports pitch
Persimmon Homes
South East has made the
first of 4 charity grants
under its Building
Futures scheme to the
Gravesham Sport Trust
(GST), a charity running
the only full size, floodlit,
artificial multi-sports
pitch in Gravesham.
GST was selected for the £1,000 donation from the scheme which aims to
support community groups working with under-18s across three categories
– education & arts, health and sport.
Karen Milles, from GST, said: “This is excellent news, thank you so much
Persimmon Homes. We will put the money towards much needed new football
goals, which will be safe and lighter for the children to use and will replace
our current goals which are old and dilapidated.”
Building Futures will see £1million given away across Britain to regional
charities, groups, sports clubs and schools to improve local facilities and the
delivery of vital community projects.
In addition to hundreds of local donations of £1,000, 96 initiatives will go on
to compete for top prizes of £100,000 through a national online public vote.
The overall winners will be named at a gala dinner for finalists in October.
Martin Crick, sales director of Persimmon Homes South East, said: “We are
so proud of the difference our Building Futures scheme can make to the
grassroots organisations working every day within our local communities.”
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