The hospice has appointed three new members to its board of trustees whose interests and expertise range from the health services to accountancy and business.

Wendy Bundy, 54, originally trained as a history teacher and now serves the community in a wide variety of ways.

She is a magistrate on the Selby Bench, chairman of the Yorkshire Rural Community Council, and a Member of the Regional Chamber for Yorkshire and Humberside and the Council of the National Trust.

Wendy has been involved with the York NHS Trust for the last 15 years and is currently chairman of the Mental Health Act Managers for Bootham Park Hospital, York. She is also chairman of the Management Committee of Hartrigg Oaks Continuing Care Community and a member of the Care Services Committee of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. She is shortly to take up a non-executive directorship on the board of the new Primary Care Trust for Selby and York.

Carrie Geddes, 41, is sales director for the family firm of York designers and colour printers, Maxiprint, who are corporate patrons of the hospice. She was educated at Mill Mount Grammar School and went on to study French and German at Salford University, spending a year working in Europe for Portakabin plc in Lille and Dusseldorf. Carrie has two teenage children and is a co-opted governor of Kingsway Junior School. She is also on the Board of the Ryedale Festival.

John Latimer, 55, is a chartered accountant and senior partner with Creers Chartered Accountants, where he has worked since 1972. He is a past president of the York Society of Chartered Accountants and a past master of the Guild of Scriveners of the City of York.

He comes from a medical family and has links with St Leonard's particularly through his wife, Dorianne who was the first employed assistant to the administrator, Ron Mason, in the 1980s.

A well-known local cricketer, he plays for Bishopthorpe Second Team in the Vale of York League.

Steven Harker, chief executive of St Leonard's, said: "The wide range of experience and expertise of our trustees is a terrific asset for St Leonard's."