Here's how you can give twice as much to Rennie Grove during Big Give Christmas campaign

Rennie Grove Hospice Care has launched its Big Give Christmas campaign to help fund the cost of caring for families facing life-limiting illness over the festive season.

All donations made via the Big Give website will be doubled from Tuesday, November 30, until midday on Tuesday, December 7, for as long as match funding remains available.

Director of fundraising at Rennie Grove, Tracey Hancock, said: “Thanks to generous supporters, including The Julia and Hans Rausing Trust, we have more than £30,000 pledged for our match-funding pot this year.

"With your help, we’re hoping to raise £30,870 from donations during the seven-day window, which would then be doubled to £61,740 through the Big Give initiative.”

Rennie Grove has been taking part in the Big Give since 2016 and this is its highest target ever.

If the hospice raises £61,740, it would fund 10 days of out-of-hours patient care between Christmas Eve and January 2, helping to keep hundreds of families safe at home, together, making memories when every moment matters.

Judith Moore, head of nursing and patient services Herts, said: “More families than ever asked us for help during the pandemic, and with hospitals still stretched and restricting visits due to COVID-19, demand for our nursing service will be higher than ever this Christmas.”

Called ‘Make a difference every hour of every day’, Rennie Grove’s Big Give campaign for Christmas 2021 emphasises how its hospice at home nurses visit patients and their families at any time of the day or night, providing essential nursing care and specialist support so patients can remain at home rather than being admitted to hospital.

Judith added: "Having this support and reassurance is more important at bank holidays and weekends and especially over the festive period when so many other services are limited or simply not available.

“Families tell us how much they value being able to contact us at any time, day or night, evenings and weekends. Imagine how that feeling must be magnified over the festive period

when they might have no-one else to turn to?”

Local company Take One TV kindly offered its services, pro bono, and created a short video to support Rennie Grove’s promotion of its Big Give campaign across its social media channels.

Robert Kayum, from Tring, talks about the difference it made to him and his sister, Ursula, to have the support of the Rennie Grove nurses when her breast cancer became terminal last year.

Robert says during the last months of his sister’s life, hardly a day went by when he didn’t see or talk to the hospice at home nurses, and having that level of specialist support “was everything” to him and his family.

It meant they could be “present every second” and his sister could be safe and comfortable at home, surrounded by love, kindness and warmth until the end.

He describes how he and Ursula spent quality time together during her final days, talking, watching TV, eating ice cream, sometimes just holding hands – like the “two best friends” they were.

To hear Robert's full story and to make a donation to the hospice, visit www.donate.thebiggive.org.uk and enter Rennie Grove as your chosen charity between 12pm on Tuesday, November 30 and 12pm on Tuesday, December, 7.

Any donations during that time will go twice as far at no extra cost to you, helping more families spend precious time together this Christmas.