YORK’S St Leonard’s Hospice has been boosted by a “fantastic” year for donations, as it deals with growing running costs.

The hospice, in Tadcaster Road, received £700,000 in donations from the public between January and October this year, compared to £615,000 during the same months last year.

Dawn Clements, director of fundraising for the charity, said: “It has been another fantastic year of fundraising for St Leonard’s. We know we’re incredibly lucky to receive such amazing support from our community and this is something we never take for granted. I’d like to thank anyone who has supported us in any way this year. Any amount, large or small, makes a difference to patient care and we couldn’t do what we do without you.” This year the charity needed to raise £5.2 million to run the hospice. It received 29 per cent of that from the government but the rest needed to be raised in donations, retail, fundraising events and community support.

Sarah Ross, fundraising manager for the charity, said: “£5.2million is a huge number but specialist staff and equipment is expensive and patients’ comfort is a top priority.

“We have certain expenses that come around every so often, for example we are looking at replacing some of our mattresses at the moment.

“We have had two new community fundraisers join the team in the last year and this has seen an increase in support from some more outlying areas of our catchment, such as Ryedale.

“We are also hoping to raise further awareness of Gift Aid next year.”

St Leonard’s opened a new shop in Fossgate in the summer of last year and one in Layerthorpe this summer.

It plans to open another new shop in Easingwold next spring.

Dawn added: “Retail has had another strong year and consistently raises half a million pounds for the hospice, bucking a lot of general retail trends this year. Customers have become a lot more environmentally aware this year and charity shops benefit from an increase in donations as people seek to recycle clothing and household items rather than dispose of them.

“Legacies [from wills] are still our greatest source of income.”