News & Review Spring/Summer 2018 01. Newsletter_Feb 18_web | Page 2

Welcome from Emma Hodges, CEO It’s been a busy 12 months at St Giles, beginning this time last year with the launch of our new brand and the unveiling of our five-year strategy. Reading through the strategy again this week in preparation for writing this piece, one line stood out for me – ‘It takes a community to make a hospice’. Every day I see, hear and listen to stories of how the community supports St Giles and the work that all of our teams do, from volunteers who have worked in our shops for an amazing three decades, to fundraisers climbing to Everest Base Camp to raise money. Let’s get connected! Come and find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to keep up to date with all the latest St Giles news and stories and let us know what you’ve been up to! /stgileshospice @stgileshospice /company/stgileshospice/ @stgiles_hospice So many people across our community give their time, energy, money and donated goods to St Giles and to quote a famous supermarket: ‘Every little helps’. In fact, all of those generous gifts of hours, pounds and items add up to such a lot. This year we worked out that our volunteers donate an amazing £2.3 million-worth of time to the organisation. That’s on top of the millions of pounds raised through our shops and lottery, via fundraising and through gifts left in wills. Put simply, we couldn’t do what we do without all of the people in our community who so generously support us. Whether it’s a pound a week on our lottery, taking part in one of our events, raising money through a cake sale at work, giving your unwanted books to our shops or donating your time, it all adds up to make a huge difference in helping us to care for families at some of the hardest times in their lives. I’m incredibly proud of the community we are part of – I’ve seen a wonderful surge in people supporting people, through Bereavement Help Points and peer-to-peer support like our MS and Pulmonary Fibrosis support groups. And the ripples from our community engagement work are reaching even further than we could have hoped, with businesses, schools, colleges and individuals embracing the opportunity to create compassionate communities around end-of-life care with warmth and enthusiasm. So to every individual, school, college, organisation, lottery player, volunteer and shopper, and to everyone who works for and with us to spread the word, thank you. Tell us what you think We love to listen to what matters and do what matters for our patients, so if you’ve experienced care at St Giles and have suggestions of ways in which we can improve our service, however small, please get in touch. You can email us at [email protected], contact us by phone on 01543 432031 or post: St Giles Hospice, Fisherwick Road, Whittington, Lichfield, WS14 9LH. It really does take a community to make a hospice, and we are very lucky to have such a great community. 2 News and Review Spring/Summer 2018