Tynedale Hospice at Home has been in its present premises on Battle Hill for many years and it has certainly served us well. However, as we gradually expand our care services in all ways to enable us to help more patients and their families stay at home, we find we need more space.


Both the charity and our charity shop needs lots of space to manage the financial and fundraising commitments that it has and of course to store the donations that come in daily. Our shop is really important to us and to the community who support us.

Why visit our charity shop?

In the present climate of cost cutting, penny pinching and pretty much universal unease about all things economic, has brought many of us to think twice about the many products (useful or otherwise) we would have likely thought little of forking out for only twelve months ago.

However, we still love to shop and with this in mind, how can we satisfy a materialistic and consumerist shopping urge, without breaking the bank. Well the charity shop experience could help to provide an answer of sorts as your local charity store is a treasure trove of the unexpected

We sell; ladies, men’s and children’s clothes. Shoes, bags, accessories and jewellery. Bedding, linen and haberdashery. China, unusual bric-a-brac, kitchenware. We have a wonderful book range and get great feedback about our book room and also our range of music and films.

Take the time to come and visit us, you will be surprised at what you will find and remember when you shop with us you are helping us to raise funds to keep local people at home with a life limiting illness.

Have you visited our Charity EBay Site?

We have recently set up an EBay for Charity online shop. This enables us to sell some of our donated items which don’t sell so well in the shop. So far it’s proving quite successful so we are keen to keep it going and help it grow, so take a look.

Alternatively if you would like to donate some of your money to THH, made when selling your own items on EBay you can follow these instructions:

• Sign into your EBay Account
• Click Sell
• List your items as normal
• While listing your item you will see an additional EBay for charity section
• Click Tynedale Hospice at Home, if it is not listed click “Or, select another charity” and search for Tynedale Hospice at Home
• Choose your donation percentage
• List as normal

We're growing

So going back to our original point, all areas of our charity needs more space! To address this we are going to expand our charity shop into our ground floor reception area and this will be done early January. The charity will also stay on these premises and we will create a reception area upstairs to receive visitors, who are always welcome.

One of the biggest changes we are really excited about is that we are moving our care services. This is a really positive move for our charity as it shows how much we have developed over the past 16 years. We are still an independent and local charity and need involvement from our community as much as we ever did; we are just helping more people.

We are not going far as it is important that we keep in touch each day. Our care operations including our new bereavement service will operate from Selegate House on Hencotes, which most people will know as the old Selegate Surgery. We will have 2 offices there on the second floor and use of a ground floor room for training and meetings. They are compact but large enough to accommodate our staff. Our new phone number will be distributed as soon as we have it. We are moving in gradually and if you would like to take a look, just ring 01434 600388 and we can arrange a time to visit together.

Volunteers
	It’s a real privilege for me to be joining the hard working staff and volunteers at Tynedale Hospice at Home as the Voluntary Services Coordinator. I am looking forward to building on the strong foundations that have been established and moving forward. I am here at an exciting time and there is a real buzz about the place. We are all looking forward to the changes ahead and my challenge of finding new volunteers to give us the solid base from which we can grow has been set to see us into this new and exciting phase. I am working on a range of ideas to make volunteering at Tynedale Hospice at Home both fun and rewarding. If we expect people to want to be here we have to make it a good place to be as the work of Tynedale Hospice at Home could not be done without the dedication of the volunteers and we value all of their contributions, however small they may seem.
Our volunteer drivers go about their work silently in the background taking patients to appointments and waiting sometimes for hours providing a valuable service to our community and we are always looking for more people to come forward to help with this important work. I am working on building a bank of occasional volunteers to help out with less regular fundraising events. Our volunteers have the opportunity to be able to get as involved as much as they feel able, using whatever skills they can bring. We appreciate that volunteers are at the core of Tynedale Hospice at Home and without them we would not be able to provide the amazing service to our local community. I am enjoying getting to know them all and working with them as we move towards the future. Cathy Bates Voluntary Services Coordinator

Light Up a Life

Each year Hospices around the country hold a Light up a Life event. This is a chance to remember a loved one by the dedication of a light on a Christmas tree. Once again, Tynedale Hospice at Home invites you to celebrate the life of a loved one this Christmas by sponsoring a light in their memory. This year our annual Light up a Life event will be held on Saturday 5th December at 6pm outside Hexham Abbey which is a new venue for this event. We were approached by Hexham Community Partnership asking if we would like the tree held in the market Place for all to see, as the Hospice tree. Please join us if you can and support your truly local charity. The Salvation Army Band will accompany our carols as we share in an informal service of remembrance and the lights of the Christmas tree are switched on. After the service we serve mince pies and mulled wine. Dedication forms are available from Tynedale Hospice at Home office/shop and Doctors surgeries throughout the Tynedale area. Alternatively please telephone the office on 01434 600388 and a form can be sent out to you. You can also visit our website to download a form - www.tynedalehospice.com. Each year, after the event, the dedicated names are entered in a Book of Remembrance, which is circulated around Churches throughout Tynedale and is displayed at a different Church each month. The Christmas 2008 Book of Remembrance is still available to view. In October the Book is on display at Prudhoe Parish Church and during November it will be on display in Hexham Hospital Chapel. We do hope that you get the chance to view it. The list of circulation for the book for 2009 will be displayed at THH and in The Hexham Courant.

Fundraising Supporters of Tynedale Hospice at Home have been very busy in the last few months raising money. A big thank you to each and every one of you. Our fundraising event at Northumberland County Show raised £448.95 Hexham Stage Society held a Musical Concert in the Queens Hall and raised £1158 Tynedale Beer Festival organised by Tynedale Lyons supports various Charities and Tynedale Hospice at Home was one of them this year and were given an extremely generous cheque of £6000; fantastic! A Northumbrian Night at Simonburn with Mike Tickell and Ceilidh Band Across the Wannies raised £750 We had the opportunity from one of our volunteers Alison Ross to be involved with Snods Edge Teas on two occasions, in July and August. These raised £422.80 and £471 respectively for the Hospice A Jumbo Jumble Sale at Haltwhistle organised by one of our supporters, Richard Weir, raised £405 A Grumpy Night Out Disco organised by Judith Holder was held recently at the Racecourse and raised a fantastic £1528 Patricia Arnold a local accountant organised a Concert at The Sage in Gateshead after THH supported her to keep her Mother at home when she was ill. Patricia orgaised a fantastic event which people really enjoyed and the event raised funds for Tynedale Hospice at Home and Macmillan Support, amount raised to follow.

Forthcoming events.
For your diary

7th November – Hot Dog Stall at the Sele Bonfire in Hexham.

7th November - Christmas Card Sale at Wylam.

Tuesday 10th November - Talk and Presentation on Alnwick Gardens, followed by an auction and refreshments in West End Methodist Church at 7pm. Tickets are now available from our office.

Enjoy the Christmas season with us

Christmas Cards

We have a choice of five new designs of Christmas cards this year, they are now on sale in the Hospice shop in Hexham, please get your cards from us and help us with our Christmas fundraising.

Christmas Hampers

We make up as many hampers as we can as prizes for our seasonal raffle. The goods in the hampers are donated to us by people in the community. We would appreciate all kinds of foodstuff and drinks that people would appreciate finding in a hamper. Just drop goods off at the shop, all help is appreciated.

Christmas Bell Appeal

We will be distributing our bell boxes very soon around the area of Tynedale and Ponteland. If you can help with this distribution please give Emma a ring.

We have a lovely new range this year and I am sure you will wish to purchase them when you see them. Please buy a bell and support THH.

Change of Date and venue - Volunteers Christmas Dinner

The Christmas meal for our volunteers was booked at Tyne Green Golf Club, but unfortunately this was too small for the number of volunteers we have.

So we have gone back to our usual favourite and have had to bring the date forward. We hope as many of our volunteers can join us to celebrate another brilliant year with each other.

The date is now 26th November 2009 so a nice early one to get us all in the mood! It will be held at “The Charter” at Queen Elizabeth High School in Hexham and will be for the volunteers only. Please change this date in your diary. Please ring the office to confirm your place ASAP and call in for a menu as places will be filled on a first come first served basis.

The nursing staff and complementary therapists will have their meal on a different night as the Charter is not big enough for our growing organisation. Having a different night for each will also enable Hospice office staff and members of the executive committee to attend both.

Tynedale Hospice at Home
19 - 21 Battle Hill
Hexham
NE46 1BA
Tel: 01434 600388
Email:lorraine@tynedalehospice.com