SPAR customers raise bags of money for Kilbryde Hospice

Jan 23 2013 by Lynda Nicol, East Kilbride News

Over the past 12 months Spar customers in East Kilbride and Hamilton have been raising money for Kilbryde Hospice every time they shopped in the convenience store.

Gary Larkin, manager of Spar Westwood, East Kilbride, explained: “Spar Scotland charges 2p for each single-use carrier bag and 100 per cent of this money is used to benefit the local community.

“Each Spar Scotland store can nominate a local charity that would benefit from such a donation.”

“Staff at Spar Westwood were only too pleased to choose Kilbryde Hospice. The work the nurses and volunteers do at the nearby Day Hospice is nothing short of phenomenal.”

Last week Kilbryde Hospice ambassador Alex Watson had the pleasant task of visiting staff at Spar, Torhead Farm, Hamilton, to accept a cheque for £2000 from Gary and Louise Campbell, manager of the Torhead Farm store.

Alex said: “I’d like to thank all the staff and customers of Spar in Westwood and Torhead Farm for their support. Thank you for choosing Kilbryde Hospice. These are exciting times for the hospice and, rest assured, this generous donation will be used to help make South Lanarkshire’s first in-patient palliative care hospice a reality.”

Louise added: “The staff wanted to donate the money to Kilbryde Hospice because they know 2013 is a huge year for it.

“It will serve the people of South Lanarkshire, which is long overdue its own hospice.

“It is fantastic to see Kilbryde Hospice so close to the start of the build process and we’re proud to be part of it.”

The initiative by Spar Scotland has been in place since 2008 and has already raised more than £250,000, which has been invested directly into the surrounding community.

Kilbryde Hospice is one of the 25 chosen charities and organisations across the country to benefit from the money raised.