Hospice raises £27,000 by collecting and recycling Christmas trees

27th January 2020

St Barnabas Hospice Tree-cycle service has collected over 1,600 Christmas trees to help fund end-of-life care.

Now in its fifth year, the St Barnabas Hospice Tree-cycle has been a huge success. Over 1,600 trees were collected, raising £27,000 for the Hospice. This is a whopping 36.5 times the amount that their first ever Tree-cycle raised five years ago, making it their most successful Tree-cycle to date.

From Saturday 11th January, St Barnabas staff joined forces with some wonderful volunteers from local businesses and the community to collect the trees and recycle them for wood chippings.

Particular thanks go to Enterprise Rent-a-Car, Lincolnshire Coop, Gelder Group, OSB Events, Wallbreaker, Delta-Simons, Hurst Arb, Continental Landscapes, Simpson Arboriculture, Manor Farm Tree Services, KWP Plant Hire, Bytham Trees, Sam Trimmer Tree Services, Arborez, Downtown Garden Centre, Stamford 2nd Scouts, Inspire+, Anwick Garden Centre, Nunton Christmas Trees, Fillingham Christmas Trees and Doddington Hall.

Recycled trees are turned into wood chippings that can be used in multiple ways. Wood chippings can be used for biomass boilers, which heat many Lincolnshire homes. They can also provide shelter and layering for farmyard animals and in some cases can be turned into BBQ charcoal which is then sold from local farms.

Melissa Gaffney, Event Fundraiser at St Barnabas Hospice, said:

“Thanks to support from the local community, the 2020 Tree-cycle has been the most successful to date, beating last year’s total by over £13,000 We couldn’t have achieved this level of success without the wonderful local businesses who have donated their time, equipment and expertise to the campaign.

“I’d also like to thank members of the public who came forward to volunteer their time and help us collect Christmas trees. Their support has been hugely valuable and has meant that we could extend our collection locations further across Lincolnshire.”

The money raised from this year’s Tree-cycle will have a huge impact on the care St Barnabas delivers to people across Lincolnshire living with a life-limiting or terminal illness and their families and carers.

Just as an example, £27,000 could fund 2,150 three-course meals and warm blankets for patients, 1,055 mouth care kits to relieve discomfort, or 526 bereavement support sessions.

St Barnabas has lots of exciting new ways to fundraise planned for 2020 – the next being Gin and Jammies. Gin and Jammies means supporters can drink gin with their friends, in the comfort of their own home, in their ‘jammies’, all whilst fundraising for the Hospice. To find out more, visit www.stbarnabashospice.co.uk/ginandjammies.

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