St.Nicholas' Hospice has launched a weekly Lottery as a major new fundraising initiative. Bob Jones, Chief Executive, announced that the first draw takes place on 12 June 1998.

In operating a lottery, St. Nicholas' joins the ranks of the many other hospices that successfully raise money this way. There are more than 200 hospices throughout the country with around a third now running their own lotteries.

'The St. Nicholas Hospice Lottery is for people who like a bit of fun with their fundraising. Whether you win or not, you can feel happy that a substantial part of every pound you pay into the Lottery goes directly to provide hospice care for the West Suffolk and Thetford area. The more people who play the St. Nicholas' Hospice Lottery the more cash there will be for the work for the Hospice.'

The Hospice Lottery will be run separately from the Hospice itself. It is designed to generate its own prize money, cover its own costs and make sizeable profits to be given solely for patient care.

First sale
After the launch, the very first Lottery member was John Melleney, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, shown above, handing his cheque to David Pitt, Lottery Manager.

Letter from the Chairman

Dear supporter

This letter is to seek your support for the new St. Nicholas' Hospice Lottery. I believe in its money-making potential for the hospice completely and was the first to purchase a year-long lottery membership for myself and my wife.

We would be very pleased if you join the Lottery yourself and even more delighted if you can persuade friends or family to become members.

We will also be trying hard to sell our Lottery memberships door to door in an attempt to enrol new Hospice supporters. There are about 84, 000 households in our region and if we can sell 5,000 regular weekly memberships, we will raise around �120,000 each year for the Hospice.

Please help. Our Lottery is real value for money. After low administration costs and the prize fund, all profits will go to the Hospice.

The odds of winning the weekly first prize are vastly better than winning an equivalent amount in the National Lottery and, at �1,000, our top prize will not change your life - just a very nice surprise and a chance for an extravagance or two.

Yours sincerely

John Melleney
Chairman

Why we need a Lottery
St. Nicholas' Hospice has provided a unique and valued service to the people of West Suffolk and Thetford since 1984 when one Macmillan nurse covered the 600 square miles, operating from a health centre in the middle of Bury St. Edmunds. We now have a purpose-built building behind West Suffolk Hospital.

Every year in this region, more than a thousand patients with life threatening illnesses and their families are helped by the dedicated staff of St. Nicholas' Hospice. They have reason to be grateful for the caring work at the Hospice and also throughout the community where our team of Macmillan nurses make more than 3,000 visits a year.

Specialist medical and nursing service is given without charge to those who need professional care for the pain, discomfort and anxiety caused by serious illness, especially cancer. Our Family Support Team enables patients and families to manage through difficult and sad times and to come to terms with their loss.

Our Lottery will help us to continue to provide and improve the care we can offer. St. Nicholas' is an independent charity that needs nearly �1.5million every year to cover its running costs. More than half of this sum has to be raised locally.

How does the Hospice Lottery work?
The Hospice Lottery has a very simple format. You join as a member and, for a stake of �1 a week, you are allocated a six-digit unique Lottery number.

Your number enters each weekly draw for as long as you remain a paid-up member.

You can pay your Lottery subscription in one of three ways:

• by cheque direct to the Lottery office
• by standing order through your bank
• by cash in areas where there is a local collector

Each week, winning numbers will be selected at random by our Lottery computer. Prizes will be mailed out automatically. There is no need to make a claim.

Winning numbers will be printed in the Bury Free Press, Suffolk Free Press, Haverhill Echo and the Newmarket Journal and displayed each week in our five Hospice shops.

These are located in Bury St. Edmunds, Sudbury, Mildenhall, Thetford and Newmarket.

There is a guaranteed first prize of �1,000 plus a range of smaller prizes totalling �500. Each week there will be �1,500 to be won.

From Building Society To Lottery Manager
David Pitt, Lottery Manager, comes to this new enterprise from a building society background.

Nineteen years ago, he was appointed manager, opening a new branch of the Alliance Building Society in Bury St. Edmunds, and moving to the town with his family. The Alliance subsequently became the Alliance and Leicester following the merger of two societies in 1985.

Born in Cheltenham, David has maintained his home in Bury St. Edmunds since 1979 but has worked in various branches of the Alliance and Leicester in Norfolk, north -east Essex as well as in Ipswich.

He took early retirement in October 1997, after 21 years involvement in the financial services industry.

'Shortly afterwards, I saw an intriguing ad in the paper about doing some research for a fund-raising project. That turned out to be the Hospice wanting to research thoroughly the feasibility of starting a lottery in this region, based on the fact that hospice lotteries were doing well in other parts of the country,' says David. 'All my findings indicated that a lottery was a giant step forward in fundraising for the hospice and a great way to boost dramatically the money already being raised by the hard-working Fundraising Department.'

'Some hospice lotteries, in comparable population areas, are raising funds of �250,000 net a year for their hospice. I am so convinced of the Lottery success and to prove that my findings were right, I applied for the position of Lottery Manager. This is a very exciting and rewarding challenge.'

David, who is married with two sons and a daughter, is a former member and past chairman of Bury St. Edmunds Round Table. He is also an active member of St. Edmundsbury Male Voice Choir.

Some facts about the Hospice

• It costs �1.5million a year to run the Hospice. Some 40 per cent of the money comes through NHS funding, the rest has to be raised.
• Opened in its new building in March 1993, the Hospice has a ten-bedded unit offering terminal care as well as periods of respite, medical and nursing reassessment, pain and other symptom control.
• A team of specialised doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, counsellors and clergy, assisted by trained volunteers, attend to the patients' physical, psychological and spiritual needs in a positive and supportive environment.
• In addition to the bedded unit, there is a Day Hospice, a team of seven Macmillan Nurses going out into the community in West Suffolk and Thetford, with family support and a bereavement team to help patients' families.
• Specialised professional care enables people with advanced cancer, Motor Neurone Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening conditions to regain some control over their situation and live life as comfortably and fully as possible.
• Hospice care begins the moment someone is seen by a member of the team.