St Giles Hospice is thanking kind-hearted people in the local community for helping it to start 2022 on a high note after its Christmas raffle raised more than £100,000.

The money raised by the raffle will be used to fund care and support for patients, and their families, living with a terminal illness.

Elinor Eustace, Income Generation Director at St Giles Hospice, said: “We are absolutely overwhelmed by the kindness of our supporters who showed the true spirit of Christmas with their generosity this year.

“By playing our Christmas raffle and making additional donations on top of their ticket purchases our supporters have raised an amazing £101,363, which will make a huge contribution towards funding care services for the families we support.

“This is the fourth successive Christmas raffle to raise more than £100,000, which is a fantastic achievement. It takes a community to make a hospice and our raffle total shows how vital our local supporters are, year-on-year, in helping to keep our services running.

“Our summer and Christmas raffles have been more important to us than ever over the last two years, as our other fundraising income has been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, and we can’t thank people enough for continuing to support St Giles.”

Sutton Coldfield mum Rebecca Horton-Worby helped St Giles to promote the raffle to thank the hospice for looking after her mum, Sandra Horton, who was admitted to St Giles Hospice on Christmas Eve in 2018 for end-of-life care.

Rebecca, from Boldmere, and her sister Abbie were grateful to St Giles for helping to make their mum’s last Christmas special and for supporting the whole family during Sandra’s final days. The hospice had also previously cared for Rebecca’s nan, Cynthia Rose, and Cynthia’s husband , Ken.

Rebecca said: "I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who played this year’s Christmas raffle. Your generosity makes a huge difference to local patients and their families at a time when they need the hospice’s support the most.

"You never know when you or a family member or friend will need to call on St Giles and we want to make sure that the hospice will be there  in future to offer families like ours the care and support that St Giles provides both at Christmas time and throughout the year."

Prizes in this year’s Christmas raffle included a jackpot of £8,000, a second prize of £2,000 and other fantastic prizes. The top prize was scooped by a lucky winner living in Kingsbury.

St Giles runs two raffles each year in addition to the weekly lottery, providing vital income for the hospice. It costs more than £10 million every year to provide the care St Giles offers and, with little more than a third of this total funded by the Government, the hospice relies upon the generosity of the local community.

Anyone who doesn’t want to wait until the summer raffle for their next chance to support the hospice and win a prize can play the St Giles Hospice lottery, which is drawn each week. For details visit www.stgileshospice.com/lottery

For more information about St Giles Hospice and the expert care it provides, please visit www.stgileshospice.com