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Around Town Meets...
Helen Knowles
Director of Fundraising at Wakefield Hospice
By Geraldine May
 Wakefield born and bred Helen Knowles is a woman on a mission every day of her working life. Her task - to raise a staggering £2.5 million every year to maintain annual running costs for Wakefield Hospice. Together with her fundraising team, Helen, exudes enthusiasm and passion for her job which she clearly loves every minute of.
Wakefield Hospice, just out of the city centre in Aberford Road, was opened in 1990 and was the dream of four nurses who worked at the city’s Clayton Hospital. Their own experiences of nursing the terminally ill led them to realise there was a great need for a hospice provision to serve Wakefield and its people.
Before the Wakefield hospice became a reality, the nearest facility was St Gemma’s Hospice in Leeds.
Although Helen initially started out as a volunteer, she later left Wakefield Hospice for a time and worked in fundraising for the North East of England region of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
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Laughing, she said: “During this time my map reading skills increased ten-fold as I constantly travelled up and down the country.’’
However her heart lay in Wakefield and she was to return to the hospice where today she has the tough and demanding job of fundraising in today’s very competitive world.
“We live in a very competitive environment and there are so many charities/good causes which are all making demands on us. At times you have to be very inventive to come up with new ideas for fundraising to catch the imagination of the public.
“The hospice is competing all the time with other excellent causes like Children In Need, Third World charities etc. However I do believe that we are a very charitable nation. The Tsunami proved that when the people of this country donated millions of pounds at the time.
“We all remember the terrible images of people suffering in Ethiopia and when Bob Geldof urged us to give what we could to help. Unfortunately I believe that to a certain extent, we have grown slightly hardened to these images. The demand from other good causes is growing all the time.”
Helen however believes that local people always like to support a local charity.
“Another sad fact of life is that many of us have been touched by cancer and terminal illness. We all know someone who has suffered from cancer and so the hospice, which is there to help, can touch all our lives in some way. Who knows? Some of us may need to use its facilities at some time in our lives.
“Saying that however there are many people out there who don’t really understand the nature of a hospice and the great work that it does to help patients through difficult times and alleviate pain and suffering. My job, and that of my team, is not only to fundraise but also to talk to people about the work of Wakefield Hospice.
“Hospices are not the sad places many people expect them to be. Our patients often say they feel safe here and we try to recreate the same atmosphere they would have if they were being nursed at home. People come here to live and enjoy their final days in a safe, comfortable and loving environment.’’
Wakefield Hospice has16 permanent beds and also operates a homely drop-in centre which cares for both patients and carers. The hospice was extended to create an extra eight bed provision in 1999. All care, discussions and treatment are carried out in a relaxed, warm and inviting environment where patients can feel free to discuss their problems and concerns.
The hospice also provides bereavement aftercare for both adults and children.
The majority of patients who use the hospice facilities have an incurable and active cancer, but care is also offered to people who are in the terminal phase of other long standing illnesses such as cardiac or renal failure, HIV and Motor Neurone Disease.
On average, patients stay at the hospice for around 12 days. However many who are admitted do go home again after intensive treatment and/or pain relief.
The hospice aims to provide the best care possible and also support the families through the period of illness and into the sadness of bereavement.
Every alternate year Helen and her team face the daunting task of overseeing the fundraising of £2.5 million for the hospice running costs. Although some funding is available from Central Government, this is only 18% of the total needed.
A significant part of the fundraising comes from the hospice’s five charity shops, in and around Wakefield. Two are in the city centres with the other three in Morley, Ossett and Horbury. The hospice also has a warehouse which members of the public can contact on 01924 383294 to arrange collection if required and where we sell furniture, white goods and much more.
Helen said: “Unfortunately there is also a lot of competition facing us in the running of our shops. People today have been lulled into a sense of fundraising for themselves with TV programmes encouraging us to clear out our attics and sell items at auction, pile up our car boots with unwanted items and sell them at Sunday morning car boot sales and also sell unwanted items on Ebay.
“All this places a greater drain on charity shops who are also facing competition from the High Street in the form of discount shops selling T-shirts etc for just £2 or £3. Sometimes people prefer to buy ‘new’ from such shops instead of ‘second hand’ for the same money from our charity shops.
“The one way we are very successful however is when our charity shops can sell ‘labels’. People come in looking for designer labels and often find they can pick up a great bargain on an Armani outfit for example. Of course, we also have to have standards in our shops and everything is thoroughly checked and prepared before going on sale.”
Another major form of fundraising is the hospice’s popular weekly lottery. For just £1 a week many people take part, preferring to support a local charity and win part of the £1,500 weekly draw, rather than spend money on the National Lottery. Many participants say, at least they know where the money raised is used.
Wakefield Hospice is constantly indebted to its army of 400 volunteers who work tirelessly for the good of the hospice. Many help out in the shops, with fundraising and with the many events over the year including lunches, sporting dinners, house to house collections, sponsored walks, Christmas parties, craft events etc. The list is endless.
A network of fundraising groups is up and running across Wakefield – run by volunteers who organise events all year round and raise, on average, about £100,000 each year which is obviously very welcome.
Various events are already being planned for the rest of 2007. These include a sponsored bike ride in August, a summer fair at QEGS on July 14, the Sandal Castle multi-terrain 10kilometre run and fun run in September, sponsored walks in September, an art exhibition in October and a Hollywood casino night in December and much more.
Helen herself is the first to put her name forward for any particularly challenging events.
She said: “I am a firm believer that I wouldn’t ask anyone to do anything I wouldn’t be prepared to do myself. I’m very hands-on and believe in doing my bit to help.
“Every year Lord St Oswald from Nostell Priory who is our president, myself and others who call ourselves the Dirty Dozen attempt a challenge to raise funds. Over the years we have done a tandem sky dive, the New York marathon, abseiling, completed adventure weekends and most recently raised £45,000 by trekking to the base camp of Everest.
“This year Lord St Oswald and myself are involved in another challenge to Death Valley in Nevada, USA. This will take the form of a 400-mile cycle ride in just five days in October when the heat exceeds 90˚. We look for something different to do every year but whatever we do, we always pay our own travelling costs. The challenge is always very demanding and gruelling and we raise money from sponsorship.”
Helen is always keen to get celebrities involved in her fundraising events.
“I make no apologies about being greedy for this place. I love my job and I will do all that I can to raise as much money for this very worthwile cause.”
*To find out more about the work of Wakefield Hospice, take a look at the website www.wakefieldhospice.org or to volunteer or find out about fundraising, ring: 01924 213900.
Published Summer 2007. All information correct at time of print
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