A WORCESTER hospice has thanked the community for their generous response after donations came flooding in to replace thousands of pounds worth of stolen garden equipment.
In less than 48 hours, people kindly donated enough money to cover the £3,400 worth of missing equipment stolen from St Richard’s Hospice overnight on Thursday (July 28).
In what chief executive Mark Jackson called a “callous” attack, thieves cut down trees and ripped out fencing to steal a Mountfield ride-on mower, a Mowerland lawn mower, a Honda strimmer and fuel cans, all which had been bought with generous donations to the Wildwood Drive hospice.
Mr Jackson called the theft “despicable” and “a crime against the whole community”, stating the tranquil garden and grounds are important to patients and their loved ones to look out on from their hospice beds.
After hearing the news, kind supporters across the city pulled together and created JustGiving pages in order to raise funds for the hospice.
St Richard’s Hospice said: “A huge thank you to our supporters and local community for your fantastic response after hearing about the theft of £3,400 worth of gardening equipment from our hospice grounds.
“You have so kindly rallied round, made offers of help and given generous donations which have now covered the cost of replacing the stolen equipment.
“Any further donations will help towards the on-going upkeep of these tranquil gardens and for extra security to be put in place.
“As a charity we rely on donations to fund the majority of our free care and truly appreciate the support we have received.”
Amongst the supporters was Tom Horton, who created a JustGiving page after hearing about the theft on social media. In less than 48 hours the page had reached £800, including a donation from the United States.
He said: “I, amongst many others could not comprehend how anyone could do this to a hospice such as St Richard’s. I felt something had to be done. I shared the link on a couple of groups and was absolutely astonished by the response.
“I am so pleased to hear that funding has been raised for the replacement of all the stolen items via my JustGiving page and donations from many others already, but it would be fantastic if we can help St Richard’s cover any additional costs for extra security and garden maintenance required due to the damage caused.”
The JustGiving page can be found at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/StRichardsGarden
