Hospice gets on its bike to raise £58,000
Birmingham St Mary’s Hospice’s annual cycle sportive has raised a record-breaking £58,000.
More than 500 cyclists took part in Ride the Reservoir, starting from Newman University in Birmingham and taking on one of three routes of up to 100km.
The charity, which this month completed a successful merger with John Taylor Hospice to become The Hospice Charity Partnership, saw the closure of its 16 retail shops as well as the cancellation of all mass participation events during the last 18 months due to the pandemic, resulting in losses of around £1.4m.
Birmingham St Mary’s Hospice provides palliative and end of life care and support to over 500 people across Birmingham, Sandwell and Solihull every day.
The Hospice has annual running costs of £8.1m with only one-third funded by the NHS, the charity relies on voluntary donations in order to continue offering its services to those who need them, free of charge.
Laura Nash, senior events manager for the Hospice, said: “We’re absolutely blown away by the support that we received at our Ride the Reservoir event last month.
“It’s been an incredibly difficult 18 months for the charity with Covid-19 restrictions meaning that events such as this one have had to be cancelled and postponed and so to not only have over 500 cyclists stick with us and turn out in the heat to ride this year, but to double last year’s total and raise over £58,000, we’re speechless!”
For more information about how you can support Birmingham St Mary’s Hospice, visit birminghamhospice.org.uk.
