Former motorcycle champ helps local hospice (From News Shopper)

Former motorcycle champ helps local hospice

9:24am Friday 23rd December 2011 in Abbey Wood

Sidcup–based Colin Seeley, hospice supporter and former Grand Prix sidecar racer, racing machine constructor and racing team principal has donated specialist medical equipment to the value of £15,000 to Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice in Abbey Wood, SE London.

Colin, 75, made the donations through The Joan Seeley Pain Relief Memorial Trust charity which he set up after the death of his first wife Joan from bone cancer in 1979. As a tribute to her courage, he set up the Trust to provide equipment for the relief of chronic pain. The Trust derives much of its income from the motorcycling world.

The 1962 British Road Racing Sidecar Champion said: “Like many local people, I have friends who have benefited from the specialist care provided by Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice, and I know from my own experience how important expert care at the end of life is. I am fortunate thanks to my success in the motor cycle industry to be able to give back to my local community - I am delighted to be able to support my local Hospice in this way.”

To date the Trust has donated over £100,000 in specialist equipment to good causes in the UK, including over £40,000 to Greenwich and Bexley Community Hospice over the past 15 years.

The most recent donation to the Hospice was on December 1, 2011.

The equipment donations includes syringe drivers to administer pain-relieving therapies, oxygen concentrators to provide oxygen for patients with breathing difficulties and a hoist to enable nurses to move frail patients safely and comfortably.

Kate Heaps, Chief Executive at Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice, said that she is enormously grateful to Colin for his ongoing support: “As a charity, we receive just one third of our funding from the NHS leaving a balance of over £4m to raise each year to enable our specialist care, and that is before we consider our equipment needs. We simply would not be able to provide the high standard of care we do without the ongoing support of Colin and others like him.”

Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice is a registered charity that provides free specialist end of life care for people with life-limiting illnesses, as well as providing support for their families, friends and carers. It is the only adult hospice service in the London Boroughs of Greenwich and Bexley covering an area of 40 square miles and a population of 500,000 and relies on community support to continue its specialist care.

To find out more about Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice including details of how to support, visit www.communityhospice.org.uk To donate to The Joan Seeley Pain Relief Memorial Trust, readers should write to The Joan Seeley Pain Relief Memorial Trust, c/o 3 White Oak Gardens, Sidcup, Kent DA15 8WE.