Despite the pandemic, Brightlingsea Hospice Support Group has raised an amazing £18,000 for the Colchester-based St Helena Hospice this year.

The annual Brightlingsea Open Gardens event is the group’s biggest money spinner, with hundreds of people paying to visit residents’ gardens around the town over a busy June weekend. The funds for the hospice were also generated its 200 Club, and the sale of teas and lunches over the Open Gardens weekend, as well as sponsored events, plant and produce sales, stalls at fetes and other events, and support from local businesses.

On Brightlingsea Late Night Shopping night – where the group had a stall at the Victoria Place mini-market – the ladies handed over a cheque to Hospice fundraiser Rachel Joy. St Helena Hospice helps local people face incurable illness in north east Essex, supporting them, their families and carers. It also supports adults in north east Essex who have been bereaved, regardless of how or where their loved one died.

To find out more about the Hospice, click here.