They say it takes a village to raise a child. In our experience, it takes a huge community to provide care for the almost 7,000 people we support every year.
In the last year, over 24,000 people donated money, while more than 1,200 volunteered their time. How and why they did so varies enormously. What their experiences demonstrate though is that there are innumerable ways you can support St Christopher’s and the benefits are almost always mutual.
During 2025, we’ve shared the stories of just some of our outstanding supporters, all with a slightly different motivation and method for helping us to deliver the best, most holistic care we can for people at the end of life and their families.
Together, we’ve helped to make 2025 a year full of moments that mattered. We couldn’t have done it without you. Take a look at our 2025 highlights, featuring some of the wonderful people who made it so special. We hope these inspire you to keep supporting St Christopher’s!
More than 600,000 people bought a staggering 1.4 million items in our shops last year. That doesn’t just happen. Each shop has a team of ready, willing and able volunteers to support our magnificent managers. Malin is just one of our terrific volunteers with her own reasons for being there.
Malin, who has no personal connection to St Christopher’s, is just thankful she was brave enough to walk in and ask about volunteering opportunities in our Bromley shop as she’s now progressed to being assistant manager and has never looked back.
“It took some courage, but I just went in and started talking to the manager and said I would love to help. She offered me three days a week and I fell in love with it immediately.”
“I absolutely love every second of it. I can’t wait to go to work. It’s literally every aspect. I love the team and all the volunteers. I love the sense of community and it’s also really fun.”
She also has some advice for people thinking of potentially thinking of it as a route into paid work.
“For anyone thinking about volunteering, I’d just say ‘go for it!’. It’s such a good opportunity for learning. You never know when an opening will come up and you’ll have a bigger chance of getting the job, like me, if you’ve done volunteering.”
When it comes to raising money for us, we think we’ve seen it all. That is, until someone goes and does something even more extraordinary like running 25km up and down 10 volcanoes. Yep, that’s what Jason Coyne did in The Azores, raising £1,300 in the process, inspired by his grandmother Dorothy who died in our care in 2024. Incredibly, despite finding it the toughest challenge of his life, Jason’s going to compete in the race again in 2026.
“This time I’ll be competing against the clock rather than my brother! And, with all my strong family connections to St Christopher’s, I’m always going to be biased towards raising money for them.”
If volcanoes in far-off places are out of your comfort zone, maybe Rose Howell’s 16-year fundraising venture might provide a more accessible template.
Over that the time, Rose has raised more than £40,000 through sales of jewellery she makes in memory of her mother Vera who was cared for at home by St Christopher’s in 2006.
“I like to motivate people by telling them that the proceeds from four necklaces, for example, funds a St Christopher’s nurse to care for someone for an hour. That’s a real incentive.”
“I think St Christopher’s is such an amazing place. Everyone always seems so happy and positive, and the fundraising team is very encouraging as well.”
And we can’t forget the dozens of runners and cyclists who, completing either the London Marathon or the Palace to Palace (Crystal Palace to the Palace of Versailles) cycle ride, raised more than £200,000 between them.
There really are opportunities for all. And with the inspiration from everyone featured in our 2025 highlights, we hope you’ll find a way in 2026 to support St Christopher’s.
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