HRH The Duchess of Cornwall has officially opened Trinity Hospice’s £10 million state-of-the-art 28-bed inpatient centre.

As well as touring the new inpatient centre, The Duchess also met with patients, staff, volunteers, trustees and the architects of the building.

Trinity Hospice was founded in 1891 by William Hoare of the Hoare banking family. Alexander Hoare commented: ‘My family’s connection with Trinity – the UK’s oldest hospice – goes back over 100 years to the time when it was just a small organisation run by nuns. Now, with the opening of the inpatient centre, it is also the most modern hospice in the UK and able to offer the most up-to-date care and support to the terminally ill in the community.’

Anne Hooper, chief executive at Trinity Hospice, added: ‘The new inpatient centre, designed to be as comfortable and non-institutional as possible, is light, bright, airy and spacious, and allows Trinity to match the excellence of its clinical care to its environment. We are very proud that Her Royal Highness, who viewed the architect’s plans and models in November 2006 before the two-year rebuilding programme began, was able to join us today and officially open the inpatient centre.’

The Duchess commemorated her visit – the second since she became Royal Patron in July 2006 – by planting a weeping cherry tree in the middle of the Hospice’s lawn.

Trinity Hospice has a proud tradition of Royal support. HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother was Patron for 76 years and took an active interest in the Hospice’s work. Viscount Linley is also a Patron.

On 9th July 2009, Tate, specialists in office recruitment, participated in the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge Series held in Battersea Park in support of Trinity Hospice.

Fundraising for the event was a great success with the Tate team smashing their target of £500, by raising £860 for Trinity.

A new standard for speed was set in the event by Joscelin Conrad, Tate’s Specialist Project Director. She ran the 5.6km (3.5 mile) Battersea Park course in 30:15 minutes to win the ‘Most Senior Executive’ title on the second night of the Challenge in London. Joscelin had beaten her own record by over 9 minutes – she won the same award in 2007. “It was great to bring the team out of the office. Everyone was in high spirits and I was delighted to see their commitment to the Trinity”, Joscelin said.

A sold-out crowd of over 25,196 entrants from 623 companies joined in the fun and supported the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge Championship. Tate will definitely consider entering the event again next year.

Special thanks go out to the Tate team, who have supported Trinity Hospice for a number of years and have now raised in excess of £15,000.  For more information about Tate please visit the Tate website.

How the new inpatient centre emerged.

 

The old St. Michael’s Ward in January 2007.

The demolition of St. Michael’s.

Laying the foundations for the new building. 

 The structure of the new centre begins to take shape.

The new centre nears completion

In March 2009 the new inpatient centre was opened and during the summer our Royal Patron the Duchess of Cornwall attended a garden party at the hospice and commemorated the opening by planting a tree in the newly restored Trinity Gardens.