It’s time for tea! Supporters across the Fylde Coast are being encouraged to host a Tea Party for Trinity to help raise funds for the Hospice Heroes campaign.

The Trinity Tea Parties were launched with a special event – and lots of lovely cake – in our Day Therapy Unit. Patients, staff and friends attended – as did our Hospice President Mr Jimmy Armfield – and the hope is that hundreds of other people will follow suit and put the kettle on for us during March and April.

A big thank you goes to Sainsbury’s, Red Bank Road and Marks & Spencer in St Annes for kindly donating the tea, coffee and biscuits for the event.

A pack full of tips on how to host a Trinity Tea Party is available, complete with invitations and bunting, but if you can’t download and print from the website, get in touch with our Fundraising department, who will happily send one to you.

Our mascot Hospuss has been out and about enjoying a cuppa in some well known places in the run-up to the launch. He has been spotted at Madame Tussauds, taking tea in the Rover’s Return and with Ant and Dec. He also enlisted the help of Wallace and Gromit, who brewed up for him at the Pleasure Beach.

Members of the Fundraising team also called in at the Sea Life Centre, where the divers took tea underwater with the sharks – but the photoshoot ended when an inquisitive octopus took a fancy to our teapot and wouldn’t give it back!

Money raised at the Trinity Tea Parties will go towards our ambitious refurbishment, which is currently progressing well and will see the complete redesign and refit of our in-patient unit and a large portion of Brian House. Our aim is to raise an additional £200,000 through Hospice Heroes to help pay for this work – but that’s in addition to the £5 million we must raise each year to cover our running costs.

So get some friends round, bake a cake and put the kettle on!

Let us know if you are planning a Tea Party – and send us your photos via Facebook or twitter – especially if your Tea Party will be in an unusual place.