St Teresa’s Hospice has been named as the first charity to benefit from this year’s fundraising activity at the new Feethams Darlington development.

As the nominated charity for the year, St Teresa’s - which works across South Durham and North Yorkshire to provide Hospice-at-Home, Day Hospice, In-patient Care and Family Support and Bereavement Services - will also be at a number of the upcoming events at the town’s newest entertainment and leisure scheme.

Simon Hawkins, Development Director with Urban & Civic – the property development company behind Feethams – said he was thrilled that St Teresa’s had been chosen as the first charity of the year.

“Part of our plan with the Feethams development was to work alongside a number of partners to become an integral part of the local community,” he said. “We know St Teresa’s does some truly fantastic work and so we were only too pleased to pledge our support to them for the coming year,” he said.

More than £4,000 raised from the ‘dry run’ opening of the Bella Italia restaurant at the new development earlier this summer has already been donated to the charity, and other Feethams outlets are now working closely with the hospice in various ways to help encourage donations and give wider support in the coming year.

“Many of our tenants have already donated prizes to the charity’s forthcoming raffle,” said Simon. “We have an exciting few months ahead of us here - with a whole range of different events and activities planned for our podium - and as our nominated charity, St Teresa’s will be at many of those events to help raise funds and awareness of the work that they do.”

Jane Bradshaw, Chief Executive of St Teresa’s Hospice, said she was delighted that the charity had teamed up with Feethams.

“Everyone at the Hospice was thrilled that this important new development for the town has chosen to adopt us, as we mark 30 years of care in Darlington and District,” she said. “Many of the exciting new Feethams leisure facilities have already begun to fundraise and support the Hospice, and it’s really great that they are helping us make a difference to local people.”

For more information about the work of St Teresa’s Hospice and the services it offers the community, visit http://www.darlingtonhospice.org.uk.

Issued on behalf of Feethams Darlington by Bewonder*. For further information, please contact Andy Dickens on 0113 235 5218 or andy.dickens@bewonder.co.uk.