ALMOST 100 of the 487 volunteers at St Clare Hospice met for a special afternoon tea party in celebration of National Volunteers Week.

A number of awards were presented to the group by Lord Petre, Lieutenant of Essex and also a Patron of St Clare Hospice.

These included two 20 year service awards which went to Audrey Marlow, fundraising and Harlow Friends of St Clare, and Liz Jones (Epping) who has supported fundraising efforts over the last two decades.

Volunteer services manager for St Clare Chris Crump said: “Our volunteers are extremely important and we want them to be recognised and thanked for all their hard work – work and time that they offer to the hospice free of charge.

“Our volunteers work in many different roles including retail, fundraising, patient areas, reception and so on and we hope that by holding this tea party, they will all see just how much they mean to us.”

Chairman Michael Chapman said: “Our volunteers are the life blood of the hospice and they should be recognised for the time and effort that they give to St Clare.

“It is extremely important for an organisation such as St Clare Hospice to be able to recognise what our volunteers do and we are extremely lucky to have 487 volunteers working across the charity.”

He added: “We were very excited to be able to offer this afternoon tea party in recognition of our volunteers and also volunteers week – this is a very special opportunity to reflect on all that they do.

“Particular congratulations go to Audrey and Liz in recognition of their 20 year service and on behalf of the hospice, I would like to say a huge thank you to all 487 of you.”

The St Clare retail team are hoping to establish another method of selling donated goods by offering them for sale online through sites such as Ebay and Amazon. And they need volunteers to help.

Retail sales manager Louise Hamilton said: “There is a huge potential for us to generate more income for the hospice by selling certain items online.

“With this in mind, we’ve managed to allocate some office space for a re-cycled pc to start the operation but we need volunteers with IT ‘know how’ to set this up and run or Ebay and Amazon shops.”

If you would like to volunteer contact Chris Crump on 01279 773 722. For more information on St Clare Hospice, visit stclarehospice.org.uk or call 01279 773 700.