ST BARNABAS: Support St Barnabas with the Sunflower Memories Appeal

Barnabas means “son of encouragement” and he was known for having a strong interest in all people.

Our hospice was named by founder Dr Francis Gusterson in 1967 after it was suggested the hospice be named after a Saint, and it is wonderful to think of how many thousands of people St Barnabas has helped during the intervening years.

We will also be remembering our loved ones this week with our Sunflower Memories Appeal, and our chaplain, Stephen Gurr, will conduct a short blessing outside the hospice on Friday to remember all those who have had a sunflower dedicated to them.

This is the fourth year we have run our Sunflower Memories Appeal, providing supporters and friends of St Barnabas House with the opportunity to remember a loved one and help support the hospice.

In return for a donation, we have planted beautiful Sunflower Memory Markers with the names of the people to whom the dedication was made handwritten on them.

The sunflowers are being displayed at the hospice throughout June – and I have to say they are a very moving, but uplifting sight to see.

In total, we have received over £23,000 in donations made in memory of loved ones, and have planted approximately a thousand sunflowers.

The money raised will go directly towards providing our care services at the hospice and in the local community, in the comfort of patients’ own homes, and I would like to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has supported this year’s Sunflower Memories Appeal.

• St Barnabas House chief executive Hugh Lowson