The Board of Trustees at Heart of Kent Hospice in Aylesford are delighted to announce that Ann-Marie Kelly has been appointed Interim Chief Executive effective from 14 July 2025.
Ann-Marie has been the Director of Income Generation at the hospice for the past ten years and worked alongside outgoing Chief Executive Rachel Street before being appointed Interim Chief Executive at Heart of Kent Hospice.
Ann-Marie Kelly said: “I am excited to be leading the hospice as we face a mixture of change, challenge, and opportunity. There are certainly some difficult hurdles to navigate, especially related to raising the funds we need to deliver our exceptional end-of-life care and to ensure our patients, their carers and loved-ones are supported.
However, these are also exciting times as we progress plans to build a new hospice for our local community. The level of interest and engagement from prospective funders and contractors demonstrates that this is not only an exciting time for the hospice, but also hugely beneficial for Kent.
Our focus will be on balancing this additional fundraising need with the reality that we are always under pressure to fund the free day-to-day care of our patients and their loved ones.
The hospice must raise much of its income through its own fundraising initiatives and charity shops as last year only 18% of funding was provided by the government even though we cared for 2,153 patients and their loved ones in their own homes or at our Aylesford-based hospice.
I am privileged to be taking over from Rachel as Interim Chief Executive and look forward to continuing to work with everyone as we strive to expand our reach and reputation. As demand for our specialist palliative and end-of-life care continues to increase, so does our ambition and drive to help even more people.”
For more information about supporting the Hospice visit www.hokh.org
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Heart of Kent Hospice has been providing free, compassionate, end-of-life care to people living with a terminal illness and their loved ones in Maidstone, Aylesford, Tonbridge and Malling and the surrounding towns and villages for the past 34 years.
The hospice has built an excellent reputation within the local community for the quality of its care, which has been further endorsed by the Care Quality Commission who awarded them an overall rating of ‘Outstanding’ following an inspection in February 2017.
Their vision is for everyone living with a terminal illness in our community to achieve the best quality of life. They are committed to achieving this by enabling patients to live in comfort, with independence and dignity to the end of their lives, and to support those closest to them.
Last year the hospice cared for over 2,153 people and their families in their own homes or at our Aylesford-based hospice. The charity needs to raise £6.6 million to deliver all the hospices services, and depends heavily on its loyal community of supporters, whose generous donations and fundraising activities raise money for the charity every year.
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