The Reed Foundation donates £10,000 to The Myton Hospices

The Reed Foundation, part of the Reed Group, is donating £10,000 every week, for a year, to support 52 different charities, chosen by its employees. This means that by April 2025, the Reed Foundation will have donated an incredible £520,000. The initiative is a celebration of Reed’s 65th year of business and its Founder, Sir Alec’s 90th birthday.

Every week, a Reed employee is drawn randomly to nominate a charity of their choice to receive the incredible donation. This time around, it was Kayleigh Hersey – a recruitment specialist based in Reed’s Northampton office, who opted to support the charity which has hospices in Coventry, Rugby and Warwick.

Speaking about her reasons for nominating the charity, Kayleigh said: “Over two years ago, my dad Paul was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given four months to live. He told us he did not want to go to a hospice or hospital but wanted to stay at home – The Myton Hospices enabled us to do this.

“They sent carers out three times a day to help make him comfortable at home and, as horrible as it sounds, to die there. We’re a big family. I have five brothers and sisters, and we were all able to be there on his last breath.”

The Myton Hospices believe everyone matters for every single moment of their life. By focusing on enhancing life when a cure is no longer an option, they support people living with life-limiting illnesses and their families. As a charity, they need to raise £11m of the £14.3m it costs to continue providing its services free of charge to patients and loved ones.

Charlotte Ingram, Director of Income Generation & Supporter Engagement, said: “We are incredibly grateful to the Reed Foundation for this generous donation, and to Kayleigh for nominating us to receive it.

“We have recently launched our urgent appeal to raise £240,000 to fund the recruitment, training and salary of five registered nurses for a year to ensure more people can access a hospice bed when they need it.

“Support like this from our local community is vital in helping us care for as many people as possible living with life-limiting illnesses. Our Myton at Home team supports people in their own homes and helps to ensure they can die at home if that is their wish, like Kayleigh’s dad, Paul.

“On behalf of everyone at The Myton Hospices, we’d like to say a big thank you to Kayleigh and the Reed Foundation for helping us continue providing essential palliative and end of life care for people across Coventry and Warwickshire.”

Kayleigh said the charity also provided vital counselling and emotional support for her family. Since the passing of her father, her family have been actively involved in fundraising for The Myton Hospices, including her mum taking part in three running events.

“This money will be life-changing for people,” Kayleigh added. “This will enable the charity to get more staff, provide more support and to reach out of more people in the community.

“For dad, being at home was the number one thing. The fact the charity could do that for us left a great memory for him, that in his dying days he could be at home, and for us as a family that we could be with him.

“Towards the end, he couldn’t speak but he wrote some of the carers a letter to say thank you for everything. They were invaluable for him.”