Mountbatten Hampshire (formerly the Countess Mountbatten Hospice) – Southampton office charity

It has been a pleasure and a very rewarding experience working with Mountbatten Hampshire supporting the Hospice as our designated office charity for the last 2 years through fundraising by the staff at Blake Morgan’s Southampton office.

We were well on our way to achieving our target of £10k when the 2020 lockdown put a temporary halt on our activities but still managing to raise £6,740. A planned 24 hour Knit-a-Thon at the Southampton office was due to take place in March 2020 which no doubt would have taken our total funds up to our target – this will happen when it is safe to do so in the near future.

The charity committee is made up of staff who meet regularly and enjoy pooling fund raising ideas and then organising the events such as quizzes, BBQs, cake sales, raffles, donation stations, individual fundraiser events such as the 3 Peaks Challenge, A Drop Your Boss Event (a sky dive by one of our Partners at Blake Morgan) and Speaker Evenings. We also have a wonderful Volunteer Day scheme at Blake Morgan whereby each member of staff may use one day per year outside of their annual leave allowance, to support any charitable cause of their choice. We have regularly had groups of 6 – 8 taking part in gardening days and window cleaning days at the Hospice which also gave the volunteers the opportunity to get to know other members of Blake Morgan informally and whom they may not have normally worked with in a different environment out of the office. These have been very rewarding for our staff as their comments here suggest from last year’s gardening and window cleaning days:

Gardening day October 2019:

. . . We received a warm welcome from the staff and regular volunteer gardeners, learning about the Hospice and its aim to provide a future ‘home care and nursing service’. The Hospice’s volunteer gardeners were saying how important the garden is for the patients and their families because it gives them a calm place to take some time out and get some fresh air.  We were really impressed with how well the gardens are maintained despite all of the gardeners being volunteers – it shows how important it is to volunteer for charities like this.  It can really make a difference to people going through a tough time . . .

Window cleaning Sept 2019:

. . . On a sunny Monday morning eight Blake Morgan volunteers were warmly welcomed by The Countess Mountbatten Hospice in Southampton. After a tour round the Hospice, and a health and safety briefing everyone was set to work cleaning windows. Various techniques were trialled but everyone got into a steady rhythm working around the buildings in pairs. Darren took up the role of quality control ensuring that a streak free finish was consistently achieved throughout the day.   

All the volunteers had a great time and were committed to making a difference . . .  The Hospice kindly reported later on that they “had a number of compliments already from people coming in through the double doors this morning and actually being able to see through them!! I know the patients and nurses on the inpatient unit are really appreciating it as well, so please do pass our thanks on to the whole team.”

The Fundraising Team at Mountbatten Hospice; Rachel, Eliza, Mark and Nic have been such a joy to work with, always helpful and keen to support whatever events we planned or Blake Morgan providing event helpers such as parking marshals at the Hospice. It is a win-win situation. The Annual Corporate Awards Evening, hosted twice at Blake Morgan’s offices, was attended by many local business representatives, who also support the Hospice, and showed just how much the Hospice touches people’s lives in the local community. Its professional, calm and caring staff and volunteers provide a very special service and continue to make the Hospice a place of sanctuary and peace when the time comes for patients, family and friends and you just want to give something back to support this unique place.