Charities

This years event will be raising funds for the Sir Michael Sobell House Hospice and Wooden Spoon.

Sir Michael Sobell House Hospice

For over 30 years the Sobell House Hospice charity has been offering care and support to those members of our community affected by limiting illnesses.

The years since it's opening in 1975 have seen the hospice develop across a number of fronts, including the opening of the Day Centre and provision of home care. In recent years the place of complementary therapies, chaplaincy work and social care have all been affirmed and established. In November 2001 a new 20 bed hospice was built on the current site to provide a modern hospice and improve the service to the community of Oxfordshire. The hospice costs around £3million a year to run , a large part of which comes from the generosity and support of local companies and individuals throughout the county such as yourself.

The following Mission Statement continues to underpin the vital work of the hospice:

“Our aim is to offer psychological, social and spiritual care to those facing illness, death and bereavement. In partnership with all those involved, we focus on quality of life, respecting the uniqueness of each person who comes to the Hospice. We seek to contribute to the development of palliative care through education and research.”

At Sobell House the focus is very much on the patient and the family, not the disease. Patients with terminal illness often need more care than those whose illness is curable or chronic. As a result they can feel vulnerable and disadvantaged.

During the course of a typical year the hospice is involved with approximately:

• over 3,000 home care visits
• over 3,000 day centre visits
• over 500 people received residential care
• 400 families received help during bereavemen

Those visiting the hospice for the first time often comment that it is not the gloomy and depressing place they had imagined it to be. Instead they find a place that if full of life and even joy.

The hospice currently runs at a cost of around £3 million a year much of which is raised through the efforts of people just like you. Without this help we simply could not exist.

Wooden Spoon

Wooden Spoon is rugby's charity supporting mentally, physically and socially disadvantaged children and young people. Spoon has committed to over £13 million in spending for projects for children and young people. It has organised over 2,000 events and had over 25,000 ties worn by its loyal members and supporters. Hardworking staff and volunteers have achieved all of this since the birth of the charity.

It all began on a fateful day in Dublin in 1983 when England's Five Nations season ended in disaster with defeat by Ireland leaving them languishing at the bottom of the table. A group of English supporters were presented with a Wooden Spoon by their Irish opponents to mark this historic occasion. On returning home the proposal to play golf for the spoon attracted the interest of fellow English supporters. Over 100 people attended that golf day at Farnham and by the end of the evening £8450 had been raised. The funds were cashed in for a minibus purchased for the Park Special Needs School in Aylesbury. The charity was born..

Over time the number and variety of events increased as have the number of supporters and participants. Spoon now has patronage from the four rugby home unions and royal patronage from Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal.

Today there are 44 regional committees including three national committees, Scotland, Wales and Ireland with more than 11,000 members. It has become a national charity but one working very much at a local level where all funds raised locally are spent locally.

Spoon's strength and purpose, however, have been to convert the funds derived from our fundraising activities to benefit socially, mentally or physically disadvantaged children and young people.

We support work that addresses a wide range of social problems as well as physical illnesses and disabilities ranging from cancer, cystic fibrosis and autism. Spoon has a positive impact on disability in all its forms and comforts the sick and needy whenever we have been able to do so.

We meet challenges with good humour and much enjoyment. We create events and activities that make demands on both our sporting and social prowess. We are driven by a collective ambition to see Wooden Spoon continue to grow in stature and thereby continue to have a positive impact on disadvantaged children and young people throughout the United Kingdom.

Spoon now consistently raises over £1.5m each year for distribution to local and national projects. With each passing year we want to continue to raise the bar higher and help more children with physical, mental and social challenges.