INTERVIEWS: £50K donation from holiday park empire will fund "huge amount of care" for Lancaster hospice patients

Wednesday, 17 January 2024 13:11

By Greg Lambert @greglam72

John Morphet (left) and his company Pure Leisure Group have donated £50,000 to St John's Hospice

Staff at a Lancaster hospice say they have been "blown away" by a £50,000 donation from a local holiday park firm.

The team at St John's Hospice was presented with the money on Wednesday by Pure Leisure Group, run by leading leisure entrepreneur John Morphet.

Speaking at Pure Leisure Group's base in Yealand near Carnforth, the hospice's chief executive said the money was one of the biggest donations they had received for some time and would pay for "a huge amount" of care.

Sue McGraw said the donation would be spent on 625 'Hospice at Home' visits by the St John's team.

LISTEN to our interview with Sue McGraw and Jill Barfoot from St John's Hospice

"We're just blown away by the generosity of the Pure Leisure Group and in particular Mr Morphet who has arranged this for us, and the team who have been making calls all year and asking people to make a small donation," said Sue.

"We're so, so grateful because we're not fully funded, only about 27 per cent of our funding now comes from statutory funding, and (for) the rest we rely on local people and local businesses to support the hospice and keep us going.

"It's a wonderful donation and it's a huge amount of care that we'll be able to provide.

"We spoke to Mr Morphet about how we might spend the money and he's decided he'd like to support patients who want to remain in their own home at the end of their lives.

"We reckon the £50,000 will pay for about 625 days and nights of care."

Sue is pictured below.

Pure Leisure runs 19 holiday parks in the UK, including several in the North Lancashire and Morecambe Bay area, and Royal Westmorland in Barbados, a luxury five-star development with houses around a golf course with views of the Caribbean.

LISTEN to our interview with John Morphet

"St John's Hospice is a very well-known and important charity to this area," said Mr Morphet.

"Many years ago we raised some money for St John's Hospice, and of all the charities we've raised money for, I've never found a charity that's been more grateful than St John's Hospice.

"I've never forgotten. I thought now is a good time to raise more money.

"We've donated money from each holiday and touring caravan visit to a fund and gathered that together, added a bit more to it from ourselves and donated it to St John's Hospice.

"I'll keep going as long as we can and we'll raise money each year for them."

John, who is originally from the Preston area, started work on a small caravan park on his family’s farm in Westmoreland at the age of 14.

After suffering a broken back, he decided not to return to farming and instead entered the leisure industry.

In 1988 he founded South Lakeland Caravans and in 2004 Pure Leisure Group, building it into one of the leading holiday lodge and caravan park firms in the country.

Pure Leisure has also donated £50,000 to Beechwood Cancer Care centre in Stockport.

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