This January, our Sales Manager, Asia has been using her furlough leave to raise money for our local hospice.

Asia is raising funds for St. Mary's Hospice in Ulverston by running 9,000 steps every day in January. As of 27th January, Asia’s run over 130 miles with support from her Dad.

It costs £9,000 a day to operate the hospice and support those who need it. The hospice costs over £3.5 million a year to run with only 17% funding from the NHS, with the rest coming directly from the community. The palliative care received by patients is all free of charge and the hospice supports patients and families throughout their care as well as after offering bereavement services.. So far the event has raised over £14,500 and Asia is the 2nd highest fundraiser.

Asia and her Dad, Andy have been running locally during January around Windermere and Bowness, building up over 130 miles during the month. They have braced the wind, rain and snow, running between 3 to 7 miles every day, reaching over 9000 steps per day.

Asia said “During a usual working day I rarely get over 2000 steps a day! I only recently starting running and this is real tough challenge for me”. Asia has been on flexible furlough throughout January and said “Doing this challenge has really given me a focus throughout this cold and dark month, on many occasion I’ve looked outside the window at the rain and not been motivated to go out but I’ve had fantastic support from my Dad and once I’m out, I’ve felt so much better for it”.

Like many charities and hospices, the impact of Covid-19 has hit St Marys Hospice severely with many fundraising events over the past year having to be cancelled.

If you’d like to contribute to Asia’s fundraising page and help support St Marys Hospice, you can click here.

A message from Asia – “I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has donated, the hospice is close to my heart and every penny helps and will make a difference to the hospice”.