The Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice in Farnham, UK, is launching a mobile charity campaign today, helped by a grant from Help the Hospices, the UKs leading charity supporting hospice care, which was funded by the Towergate Charitable Foundation.
Serving a population of more than 600,000 across West Surrey and North East Hampshire, Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice has been offering specialist palliative care to adults facing the end of their lives and to those who love and care for them for the last 30 years. Palliative care is more than just controlling symptoms and pain; it's a holistic approach that embraces every aspect of the needs and worries of the terminally ill as well as the needs of their families.
The Hospice treats 100 patients and families every day at a cost of 10,000 per day. Only 16% of funds received to cover operational costs comes from the NHS. The rest comes from legacies, sales at its 12 charity shops, fund-raising events and local businesses.
The mobile campaign is being launched to enable carers to provide more help and support to patients and their families beyond the physical space of the Hospice. Donations received will help enable it to be more mobile in its operations, providing more care to the terminally-ill in their homes.
Today, and each day for the remainder of the week, passengers at Farnham railway station in Surrey will be handed a leaflet urging them to text HELP to a Shortcode, 84433. Those who do will immediately receive a mobile response containing a link to view a mobile video. After viewing the video, they will be encouraged to donate by texting GIVE to another Shortcode, 80556 and agree to be billed 5 as a donation to the charity. They then receive an SMS, thanking them for their donation. The campaign has been organised by mobile marketing company Mediaburst, and will be repeated on 18 May at Guildford railway station.
Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice believes that while we can't add days to life, we can certainly add life to days, says Elle Georgiou, the charity's Communications Manager. In the Hospice's 30th birthday year, we're looking for new and innovative ways to raise the funds we need to achieve our vision of providing specialist care in the location of the patient's choice, which is usually in the comfort of their own home. We believe that harnessing the immediacy of mobile phone technology to better engage with our community could well become an effective way of generating immediate responses and donations.