Five dedicated St Helena Hospice volunteers were honoured to meet the King and Queen on their Royal visit to Dedham.
Denise Hall, Carole Lawrence, Jean Ward, Elizabeth Nickerson and Veronica Cottee all volunteer in St Helena Hospice’s charity shop on Dedham high street, and were invited to join in the Heroes in the Local Community celebrations at the Sun Inn.
Denise Hall, who has passionately volunteered with the St Helena shop for 10 years, said:
“The King spent a lot of time with us and he shook our hands, which was very special, and then the Queen came over and we all did our little courtesy
“We told them lots of facts about St Helena Hospice and she said to us that she recognises there aren’t enough hospices. She was genuinely very keen to know about what we do at the hospice.
“It was all very well organised from the parking, right up to positioning us where we needed to be to meet the King and Queen.
“It was very interesting to meet all the people representing their organisations and what they do to help people too.”
Elizabeth Nickerson started volunteering at the hospice shop in Dedham after her husband died, and has volunteered for 8 years. Mrs Nickerson said:
“We were all gathered around the fireplace at the pub and it was very cheerful indeed. There were lots of other people there so plenty of people to talk to and it was a lovely atmosphere.
“It didn’t feel nerve-wracking, even though we were some of last people the King and Queen came to. It was lovely and they were very nice people.
“I thought it was an exceptional treat. It was a terrific spirit with people packed along the street standing in the rain for hours. There was a band and the atmosphere felt very celebratory; it was a lovely celebration.”
Wendy Marcon, Volunteer Services Manager at St Helena, said:
“We were delighted to be asked to select a handful of our volunteers from the Dedham shop to be part of the royal visit today. It has been a pleasure being involved liaising between our volunteers and the organisers.
“Our volunteers are a key part of St Helena Hospice, particularly our retail teams, who raise vital income to support hospice services.
“I’m so proud of our lovely volunteers who rose to the occasion and represented St Helena Hospice to the King and Queen today.”
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Photocaption:
St Helena Hospice Dedham shop volunteers (l-r) Denise Hall, Elizabeth Nickerson, Jean Ward, Veronica Cottee, Carole Lawrence
About St Helena Hospice
St Helena Hospice was established in 1985 and provides specialist end of life care and support for people living in north east Essex who face incurable illness and bereavement. The emphasis for this charity is about quality of life and services include the Hospice, Hospice in the Home, bereavement support, and SinglePoint 24/7 advice line and rapid response. More than 90% of support is carried out by the Hospice in the Home team in people’s own place of residence. 80% of the income needed to run St Helena is raised through the local community giving donations; buying in St Helena shops; playing Your Hospice Lottery; and leaving gifts in Wills. Vital funds for St Helena are also raised through supporting its commercial and social enterprise activities.
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