The Province of Durham Mark Benevolent Fund closed the Centenary Year with a final grant to St Benedict’s Hospice. The Hospice is based at Ryhope in Sunderland and has provided palliative care since 1984. The Hospice were in need of funding to convert an ordinary meeting room into a child friendly bereavement room.
The Durham Mark Benevolent Fund provided the Hospice with a grant of £730. With the year-long programme of grant giving being particularly focused on children and young people, this donation was considered to be especially appropriate by the Fund Executive. It also marks a fitting finale to the Centenary Year grants.
The Hospice provides counselling and support to children in the 5-18 age range. They provide appointments for up to 4 children a day, 3 days a week who have a family member suffering a terminal illness and is in the hospice. They also provide support where a family member has died at the hospice within the last 2 years.
A long list of aides has been suggested, mostly by the children themselves. These range from board games and children’s books to information and books dealing with, for example, “When someone very special dies“ or “The Memory Box“. We are pleased to note that the list has been satisfied in full by this grant.
In circumstances in which a surviving parent can be so overwhelmed by their own grief that they are not in a position to recognise the needs of their children, it is hoped that this fitting gesture can help to relieve their distress.
Pictured making the suitably distanced presentation to staff member Linda Thorpe with the very best wishes of the Mark Master Masons of the Province of Durham is Chairman, David Hanson.
More information on the hospice and its work can be found on their website here
More information on the charitable work of the Mark Master Masons can be found here
More information on the Centenary Year can be found here