Foyle Hospice is calling on people to put the kettle on this October after 42 coffee mornings brought communities together in support of local hospice care last year.

What do 42 coffee mornings look like? They look like neighbours gathering around a kitchen table, colleagues taking a break together, friends catching up over cake and community groups filling halls with conversation.

And they add up remarkably quickly.

If just 25 people came through the doors of each of the 42 coffee mornings held for Foyle Hospice last year, that would represent 1,050 people coming together for their local hospice.

Foyle Hospice Community Fundraiser Ailbhe McDaid and Legacy and Corporate Fundraising Officer Kathleen Bradley are ready to start stacking the cups again as the Hospice launches its Coffee Morning Month campaign for October. After 42 coffee mornings were held in support of Foyle Hospice last year, the fundraising team is inviting communities to put the kettle on and help take this year's stack even higher than the Foyle Bridge.

placeholder image — Foyle Hospice Community Fundraiser Ailbhe McDaid and Legacy and Corporate Fundraising Officer Kathleen Bradley are ready to start stacking the cups again as the Hospice launches its Coffee Morning Month campaign for October. After 42 coffee mornings were held in support of Foyle Hospice last year, the fundraising team is inviting communities to put the kettle on and help take this year's stack even higher than the Foyle Bridge.

If each enjoyed an average of one and a half cups of tea or coffee, more than 1,500 cups would have been poured. Stack those cups one on top of another and they would reach three times higher than the Foyle Bridge!

It is a small way of illustrating something Foyle Hospice sees every day...when local people each do something small, together they can make an extraordinary difference.

Ailbhe McDaid, Community Fundraiser at Foyle Hospice, said: “Sometimes fundraising can feel like it has to be a sporting challenge, but a coffee morning shows the opposite. It starts with someone deciding to put the kettle on, invite a few people in and do something good together.

“Then another family does it, another workplace does it and another community group does it. Last year that happened 42 times and, when you bring all of those individual acts together, you begin to see the incredible power that exists within our communities.

“The money matters enormously, but so does what happens around those tables. People talk, neighbours reconnect and communities come together around something that touches so many local families.

“This October, we would love to see even more kettles going on across the area. Your coffee morning doesn't have to be huge. Sometimes the smallest gathering can become part of something much bigger.”

Foyle Hospice provides specialist palliative care and support to patients and families across the Western Health and Social Care Trust area.

Its services include inpatient specialist palliative care, community specialist palliative care, Day Therapy, adult bereavement counselling, support for children and young people through Healing Hearts, and specialist advice and support for patients and families. For patients and families, those services are provided free at the point of need.

Sheila Duffy, Director of Income Generation and Communications at Foyle Hospice, said: “Foyle Hospice has always had an extraordinary relationship with the communities we serve, and our coffee mornings are a wonderful example of that.

“Behind every one of those 42 coffee mornings is somebody who decided they wanted to help. Then there are the people who baked, made tea, donated prizes, opened venues, brought their families along or simply put a few pounds into a collection.

“It is thousands of individual acts of kindness coming together, and we are enormously grateful for every single one of them.”

Foyle Hospice is now inviting families, friends, businesses, workplaces, clubs and community organisations across the region to take part in Coffee Morning Month this October.

Last year, 42 coffee mornings showed just how far a cup of tea or coffee can go. This October, Foyle Hospice wants to see if the community can stack those cups even higher.

Put the kettle on.