Brave ‘soles’ raise over £5,500 for St Elizabeth Hospice and East Coast Community Healthcare partnership

Twenty-five brave fire walkers have raised over £5,500 by taking part in St Elizabeth Hospice’s first organised fundraising challenge event in Great Yarmouth and Waveney, the St Elizabeth Hospice Firewalk Southwold 2021.

Held at Old Hall Café & Walks in Southwold, on Friday 3rd September, the Firewalk saw 25 brave ‘soles’ fearlessly cross barefoot over a 15ft path of red-hot embers, at over 500°C, in aid of the hospice which works in partnership with East Coast Community Healthcare (ECCH) to provide free specialist palliative care services to patients and their families throughout Great Yarmouth and Waveney.

Lesley Rawlinson, Community & Partnerships Fundraiser for St Elizabeth Hospice, said: “A huge well done and thank you to all fantastic fire walkers! They all did brilliantly and it was so nice to be alongside our supporters once more.

“Community support is vital for helping our partnership with ECCH to continue to develop in order to support more people and their families, throughout the coastal communities of Great Yarmouth and Waveney, during very difficult times in their lives.

“Without this support we could not do what we do and as ever we are extremely grateful for the generosity of local people. If you would like to learn more about fundraising for St Elizabeth Hospice, please do get in touch.”

The joint initiative between St Elizabeth Hospice and ECCH launched in April 2019, with the aim of bringing greater parity in the levels and range of care available to the communities of Great Yarmouth and Waveney in comparison to the rest of the region.

Since then more than 2,000 people have been supported by the partnership via the service’s 24-hour advice line OneCall, at Beccles Hospital, in the community through hospice clinical nurse specialists working across Waveney and Great Yarmouth or received support through the hospice’s emotional, wellbeing and bereavement support service, LivingGrief.

Charlotte Clark, who is Manager at Southwold Library, said: “St Elizabeth Hospice were brilliant in the care they gave my friend Marion in her final days, they made things so much easier for her with their excellent support. Since then I have been trying to help the hospice in any way I could so that other people can receive similar support.

“The work they do in Ipswich area as well as Great Yarmouth and Waveney is so important and to be able to support them in fun ways, like the Firewalk and the Open Gardens, is absolutely brilliant. Completing the Firewalk gave you a sense of bizarre achievement as you crossed the hot coals and at the library we are very much looking forward to supporting the Big Hoot 2022.”

Bella Hall, Owner & Manager of Old Hall Café & Walks, added: “The Firewalk is an accessible thing for a lot of people to do while still being a challenge. I’ve never thought about doing anything like this before, and I was a little bit nervous, but I am so pleased to have taken part and support the charity as well as hosting the event.

“Being such a rural community, in Great Yarmouth and Waveney, to have this support is very important to many people who live in the area.”

Further information about the partnership’s services in Great Yarmouth and Waveney can found by visiting www.stelizabethhospice.org.uk/how-we-can-help/hospice-care/great-yarmouth_and-waveney.

To contact the 24-hour specialist palliative care advice line, OneCall, call 0800 567 0111.