IT’S been a tree-mendous start to 2023 for one Furness charity which has raised more than ten thousand pounds though its annual Christmas project.

St Mary’s Hospice has shared its delight after raising its highest amount yet through the Christmas Tree Recycling Project.

The scheme helps local people recycle their trees from the festive period while helping to generate income for the Ulverston-based hospice to deliver their vital services.

The hospice has to raise £2.6m every year toward the cost of providing care — with eight out of every ten patients they look after having their care funded by donations from local people and businesses.

Annabelle Holloway, St Mary’s Hospice’s area fundraising manager, thanked the fantastic community and volunteers who helped make this year’s tree recycling project a success.

She said: “What a ‘TREE-mendous’ start to 2023 we have had with our annual Christmas Tree Recycling project. We are delighted to have raised almost £11,000 for the hospice, our highest amount raised yet. 

“A huge thank you to everyone who registered their tree for collection and made a donation. None of this would have been possible without the hard-work and commitment of our fantastic community and corporate volunteers. We are looking forward to growing this project next year to raise event more funds for our hospice.”

“With special thanks to our local community including: McDougalls Catering, Continental Landscapes Ltd, Ørsted, Kindred Spirit Cocktails, Kier McKenna, Charnleys Home & Garden, The Keswick 2 Barrow Committee, Winders, Athena PTS, Amazon.co.uk, Atkinson Memorials with Atkinson Lakeland Stone Craft and Deltawaite Ltd. A huge thank you also goes out to JustHelping who worked tirelessly to process all of the registrations and get our routes sorted to allow for a smooth operation. A brilliant community effort. Thank you.”

The hospice partnered with national organisation Just Helping, who recycle over one million trees across the UK every year. Just Helping partner with a different charity in each area — which means that money generated from their scheme stays in the area from which it came.