Toby Scott, Hospice UK’s Head of Communications and Campaigns, writes about setting up a stand at one of London’s busiest stations for Hospice Care Week.
Staff from Hospice UK tried something new for Hospice Care Week on Tuesday – a stand in the concourse at King’s Cross St Pancras station. Located under the famed new roof, and quite close to the queue for the Platform 9 ¾ shop, we took Hospice Care Week to the tens of thousands of people passing through the station, which is only a short walk from Hospice House.
This was the first time we have had a stand at a major transport hub like King’s Cross, so there was an element of stepping into the unknown. Although we had a couple of donation buckets the main goal was not fundraising. Rather, we aimed to raise awareness of Hospice Care Week and the hospice movement in general. We had some leaflets to hand out and stickers, but by far the most popular item were the sunflower badges.
We took 1,000 of those and expected to give away about 500, but in the end had to send back to Hospice House for more. In the end we gave away about 1,300 sunflower badges, and raised £355.
About 22,000 people arrive at King’s Cross in the morning rush hour, and a similar number depart from there in the evening. In between the station is quieter, but is never quiet. Most people are obviously either rushing for a train or have just arrived and are speeding off to their final destination, but plenty stopped for a badge, and a few made time for a conversation about hospices, Hospice Care Week and Hospice UK.
We had a lot of conversations with people who knew someone who had benefited from hospice care, and overall there was a lot of love for hospices. A lot of the people we spoke to were glad that we were there in such a public place, flying the flag. Even though we did not raise a lot of cash, we did prompt some people to go and think about how they could support their local hospice. One gentleman said he was going to donate his vintage model car collection to an auction to raise funds. And even as we were packing the stand away, one person came up to give £20.
It required a big staff effort, as we needed four people at a time to cover the large space we had. The team at King’s Cross were helpful in giving us a safety briefing, and overall the station staff were wonderful, with lots of them coming over to ask for badges. As an awareness-raising exercise it was great. We posted lots of photos on social media and got a lot of interest that way. The leaflets were not wanted, and nobody posed for a photo saying why they ”heart their hospice,” but the badges were very popular and overall the day was a great success.
Each station will have its own processes for doing something similar, but our main lessons were to get in touch months ahead of time and get booked in, have something simple but worthwhile to hand out, and do not make fundraising the focus, although some people will want to donate. With these lessons on board, we will be back next year.
Hospice Care Week runs till Sunday 14 October.
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