THE Hospice of the Good Shepherd has launched its Christmas tree collection campaign to help raise money this January.

The Backford-based hospice will be collecting real used Christmas trees from outside people’s homes and businesses after the festive season.

At the start of this year, around 1,300 Christmas trees were collected, raising over £14,000 for direct patient care.

By supporting this campaign, you’ll be helping the hospice raise vital income to continue to provide free palliative care to local people in the community and the environment by ensuring that the trees are recycled.

Justin Caroe, community and events manager, said: “Treat yourself to a real Christmas tree and when the festive season is over let our ‘Treecycling’ team collect and recycle it for a donation to the hospice!

“Last year’s collection was a great success with many local people getting involved and for 2021 we are hoping to collect over 2,000 trees and raise £20,000.

“In light of the pandemic, we urgently need your support now more than ever as the hospice is estimated to have a £1.1 million shortfall this year after our fundraising activities we cancelled.

“This year we are ensuring that we are Covid secure in our running of the collection service and that we adhere to whatever guidelines are in place at the time."

Register your Christmas tree at just-helping.org.uk

If you or anybody you know can donate a few hours after the festive period to help collect trees around the community, get in touch via fundraising@hospicegs.com or call 01244 851811.

The Hospice provides entirely free care to the most vulnerable and is currently in an urgent #SaveYourHospice appeal due to funding being hit as a result of coronavirus.