40 years ago this year, St Nicholas Hospice Care – founded by Lesley’s late father-in-law Revd Canon Richard Norburn, provided home care to their first patient. Since then the purpose built Hospice inpatient unit was built and opened by Princess Diana and the first patients were admitted to the ward in March 1993. For more details on the work of the hospice now, follow this link https://stnicholashospice.org.uk/about-us/who-we-are/our-history/

Inspired by a seemingly throw away comment by Sharon Connell, Head of Chaplaincy for St Nics, whilst watching another clergy friend doing a sponsored head shave last year, along the lines of “You’ve got a LOT of hair, we should do this together for the 40th anniversary next year” – suddenly it has all got a bit real and the date has been fixed!

Wednesday 15th May 2024 at 12:00 (yes high noon!) on Bury St Edmunds market. Look for the St Nicholas Hospice gazebo!

Lesley dislikes her hair short but in the hope of raising a lot of money for the Hospice to mark this momentous milestone, she will be having her luxurious head of thick, long hair shaved off – supported by her partner in crime, Sharon!

Lesley’s hair will be donated to Little Lady Locks who provide free real hair wigs to children who have lost their own hair through cancer treatment or other conditions. So both St Nicholas Hospice and Little Lady Locks will benefit by your kind donations.

To willingly lose your “crown of glory” is quite a scary thing, so Lesley and Sharon would very much appreciate your kind encouragement and support by making donations via this page using the link below.

It costs around £8 million to run St Nicholas Hospice Care each year. That’s equivalent to £22,000 per day. Although the charity receives some statutory funding, which covers around 20% of their costs, they still need to generate a further £17,500 of income per day to be there for the people who need them.

JustGiving does not charge a platform fee for the charity to receive your donation – they do however encourage supporters to add a small "tip" that goes directly to JustGiving. If you do not wish to pay this tip please click on the “enter custom amount” and select 0 when you are confirming your donation on the donation summary page

– and do feel free to visit Bury St Edmunds on market day on 15th May 2024 at 12:00 to watch and support in person!!