The army of 450 Pendleside Hospice volunteers was this week thanked with an afternoon tea to celebrate Volunteers' Week.

Volunteers' Week takes place 1-7 June every year and is a chance to celebrate and say thank you for the fantastic contribution millions of volunteers make across the country.

All Pendleside volunteers were invited to a celebratory afternoon tea at the hospice on Monday 3rd June to kick off Volunteers' Week and thank everyone for their invaluable contribution.

The team of 450 volunteers donate around 4,000 hours of their time each year, saving at least in the region of £600,000 in equivalent salaries annually.

£448,266 of this is saved by having volunteers staffing the hospice’s ten charity shops, meaning that more of the money raised goes directly to patient care.

Lisa Pearson, Head of Income Generation at Pendleside Hospice, said: “We’re extremely lucky to have such a huge group of people willing to donate their time and services to us at the hospice. The figures speak for themselves – £600,000 is a huge chunk of our fundraising which is saved each year in equivalent salaries thanks to our volunteers.

“The afternoon tea party was just our way of thanking our amazing army of selfless volunteers. Not only do they donate their time for free to help in whatever way they can, they are living and breathing ambassadors for the work we do. We simply couldn’t care for the 1,500 people we did in 2018 without the help of our volunteers.”

The team of 450 Pendleside volunteers operate across Hospice at Home, Inpatients, Day Services, Family Support, Fundraising, Spiritual Care, Catering, Gardening, Drivers, Shops, Finance and Reception.

The hospice currently needs more volunteer help with its gardening team as the weather improves and summer is on its way.

Lisa continued: “We'd like to thank Phil and Pete, our wonderful volunteer gardeners – they do an amazing job keeping our gardens looking lovely for our patients and their families.  

“We do need more assistance on the gardening team so we’re appealing to anyone in the local area who’s a keen gardener that could provide a few hours of support each week to please get in touch.”

To sign up as a Pendleside volunteer or to find out more about what it involves, please call 01282 440104 or email [email protected]