Railway staff raise money for Luton hospice

Thameslink and Great Northern staff have given Luton-based charity Keech Hospice Care £420 from money raised during December.

Throughout the month, staff at Thameslink and Great Northern Railways organised collections of non-perishable items for local food banks and the company donated £1 for every item collected. This was added to donations made by staff in exchange for the use of sports tickets, provided to the company as part of their support of community sport programmes for youngsters.

Speaking at the presentation of the cheque at Luton train station, Caron Hooper, Corporate Partnerships Fundraiser, Keech Hospice Care, said: “We are very grateful for the continued support of Thameslink and Great Northern. We receive only 30% funding from the NHS, the rest of the 70% is made from voluntary donations, wonderful ones like this. This contribution could help fund up to three days of therapy sessions for children or adults at a time when they need us most.”

Harsitt Chandak, Luton Station Manager (pictured as attached with Caron) said: “It’s great to see our people go out of their way to donate 700 food items to these centres and we are happy that as a result the company donated £350 to Keech, along with the other donations from staff. The hospice does some wonderful work for people with life-limiting conditions or terminal illness and we hope we will have more donations to make in the future.”

Keech was chosen as one of the company’s corporate charities by staff who completed an employee survey last summer. Everyone who completed the survey was asked to vote for a charity, with each vote equalling £1. Keech received 747 votes, the highest, so was chosen as the company’s corporate good cause and received a donation of £747.

Thameslink and Great Northern also has a Charities Week later this year to raise still more money for Keech and other charities. Last year this made over £3,000.

You can find out more about Keech Hospice Care at: www.keech.org.uk

ends