In June we told you that Alasdair Walker is riding 100 miles around Leicestershire on Saturday 5 September to raise money for LOROS. In this month’s newsletter, we wanted to spend a little longer talking about the charity itself.

LOROS cares for around 2,500 people a year across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. It has more than 300 staff, around 1,300 volunteers and 29 charity shops. It spends roughly £8.2m a year on patient care and needs to raise over £9m a year in voluntary income to keep going. None of that care is charged to the patients or families who receive it.

A cause close to our hearts

We mentioned in our previous newsletter that one of our clients and her family have recently been supported by LOROS.

LOROS also supported a former team member, Carol Saunders, who sadly passed away recently. Carol and her family spoke very highly of the support received from LOROS.

Some of you may remember Carol – she worked for the company as a Corporate Administrator since its inception in 1978 (when we were called Martin Bown & Co), before her retirement in 2019.

She was dedicated to providing the best possible client service and in doing so, she built some great client relationships over the years. She was an extremely hard-working and loyal member of the team for over 40 years, and had an infectious personality, and she will be sorely missed.

Founded by the community it serves

LOROS began with a meeting. In December 1975, the Leicester Council of Churches and the Leicester Free Church Women’s Council came together to press for better care for terminally ill people in the county. The charity was registered in 1977. A Victorian house on Ratcliffe Road was bought and converted into a day centre, taking its first patients in 1984. The hospice on Groby Road admitted its first inpatient in September 1985, and was formally opened by the Prince and Princess of Wales the following May.

More than a ward

Most of the work happens in people’s homes and across the community. Clinical nurse specialists work alongside NHS community nurses to deliver specialist palliative care at home. Occupational therapists and physiotherapists help patients manage pain, fatigue and breathlessness, with the aim to keep them independent for longer. A specialist social work team handles the essentials – practical help at home, income and debt advice, housing, advocacy, and helping people prepare for the end of their lives.

Around that sits everything else. Counselling for patients and for families anticipating grief, including a dedicated service for children aged 5 to 18. Bereavement hubs across the county that anyone who has been bereaved can drop into, with no referral needed. Trained volunteers who visit at home so a carer can leave the house for an hour without worrying, or who simply telephone once a week. A nurse-led day hospice. A lymphoedema clinic. A motor neurone disease team. A key worker for patients aged 18 to 40 moving across from children’s services. A multi-faith chapel open day and night.

LOROS also teaches and researches. More than 2,000 health and social care professionals go through its education programmes each year, and its Centre for Excellence, in partnership with the University of Leicester, runs research into symptom management, decision-making at the end of life and support for family carers.

Why the money matters this year

In summer 2025, rising costs and a growing deficit forced LOROS to cut services. The inpatient ward went from 31 beds down to 18. In November, short-term NHS winter pressures funding and donations from the local community reopened four beds temporarily. In March this year those four, plus two more, were confirmed as permanent, roughly doubling the number of beds funded by the NHS compared with the year before.

Nationally the picture is similar. A recent Marie Curie report suggests one in three people are dying without the palliative care they need, and around two in five hospices are making cuts. LOROS is calling for better government funding of the sector. Until that arrives, the community fills the gap.

Donations are the difference between a bed being open and a bed being closed. LOROS says 90p in every pound it receives goes to patient care, and sets out what that buys – £25 covers an hour of care for an inpatient, £50 funds a home visit from a carer, £100 could pay for a specialist nurse for a whole day.

The ride, and how to help

Alasdair Walker takes on the LOROS Leicestershire Round Bike Ride on Saturday 5 September. A 100 mile lap of the county, with 4,626 feet of climbing along the way. Training is underway and going to plan, including regular training rides when he was on holiday with his family in Mallorca, and a weekend cycling adventure with his ten-year-old Son Elliot this weekend.

We would welcome your generous donations for this challenge and this amazing cause.

You can find the link to the fundraiser here: https://www.justgiving.com/page/optimum-path-loros

You can read more about the hospice and its work at loros.co.uk. If you would prefer to give directly to LOROS, you can do so at loros.co.uk/ways-to-donate-to-loros.