Lifetime welcomed Barnsley hospice representative Zoe Holman and a video crew from the University of Huddersfield to our Great Cliffe Court offices on Tuesday afternoon.

And Lifetime Communications Director William Bottomley (pictured below) found himself being filmed for a dvd!

The hospice, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2014, are putting together a series of dvds to show people what goes on in their tremendous organisation – and one of them will feature on the companies that provide much-needed support.

One of their main ‘supporters’ is Lifetime.

We raise money for the hospice through our referral scheme (https://www.lifetime-fm.com/lifetime-in-the-community/hospice-referral-scheme/); are the main sponsor of the Barnsley hospice golf day at Silkstone in May (an event which raised around £7,000 last year); and we also sponsor the hospice mascot, Oscar (see picture below).

Barnsley Hospice is a charity that provides specialist palliative care and support to hundreds of local people and their families each year. Their main priority is to achieve the best possible quality of life for patients with a life limiting illness, whilst supporting their families, during the period of illness and bereavement. As a specialist care provider, the range of skills they offer include, pain and symptom management, emotional support and end of life care.

There are five key messages that the hospice would like their supporters and the general public to remember:

• They are a charity – their care is free for patients but not free to provide
• They care for patients at home, in the community and at the hospice
• They care for patients with all life-limiting illnesses – not just cancer
• They care for patients in all areas of Barnsley
• They support patients’ families and those close to them

It costs over £9,000 a day to run the hospice. They gratefully receive £1.6m from the NHS each year, but have to raise over an additional £2m to stay open.