City Hospice appoints new business ambassadors

Leading figures in the South Wales business community have joined City Hospice as the charity’s newest ambassadors.

City Hospice is Cardiff’s local hospice, providing care to people with terminal and life limiting illnesses such as cancer, dementia, motor neurone disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

The only provider of home-based specialist palliative care in the capital, City Hospice provides care and compassion to 550 patients at any one time, in addition to essential counselling and support services for the families of their patients.

The newly appointed ambassadors will champion and spread the word about the charity’s work within their communities, in addition to supporting events and fundraising campaigns.

Joining Spiro Borg, Managing Director of Spiro’s Fine Dining, and Chris Macnamara, Managing Director of The Brogue Trader as business ambassadors are Kim Bird, CEO of Before You Go; Catherine Brannigan, The Waterloo Foundation; Sarah Clifford, Commercial and Sales Expert; Terry Edgell, CEO of Premier Forest Group; Sarah Hughes, Communications Officer at South Wales Police; Sarah Lister-Sims, Managing Director of Hospital Innovations; Alastair Milburn, Managing Director of Effective Communication; Sara Nurse, SLC Consultancy; Clive Thomas, Managing Partner at Watkins and Gunn; and Andrew Walker, Business Development Director at Resource Ltd.

Speaking about his new role, Andrew Walker said: “I have helped to raise funds for City Hospice over a number of years now, and the more I learn about their work and their impact on our capital city, the more I realise it’s a charity that is often overshadowed by others locally in the charitable health sector.

“Covid-19 has brought the reality of end-of-life-care into sharp focus. Indeed, having lost my own father to this dreadful disease and then waited over a year to hold a service for him, I realise how vital it is for those who are terminally ill to have the chance to die at home if that’s what they want. The team at City Hospice help this to happen, supporting the people of Cardiff facing terminal and life-limiting illnesses and their families, at the most difficult time of their lives. I am really keen to help spread the message about City Hospice, what it does for our city, and how valuable its work is for each of the 500 or so Cardiff citizens in its care every month.

“City Hospice is one of the hidden jewels within the crown of Cardiff’s healthcare provision. A lot of business people know the name but don’t have a clue what it is or what it does. I hope that I, and the other City Hospice Business Ambassadors, will help raise its profile amongst the South Wales business community, understand its role as a ‘non-residential hospice’ and encourage other business people to support its work.”

Liz Andrews, Chief Executive of City Hospice said: “We are thrilled to welcome this wonderful cohort of industry leading professionals as our new business ambassadors. Their support will be invaluable in raising awareness of our work and will help us to continue to provide care and compassion to patients and families in the community.”