A COMMUNITY-owned wind farm has donated £55,000 to a Western Isles hospice to help alleviate financial pressures.
Point and Sandwick Trust (PST), a community-owned wind farm based in the Outer Hebrides, have donated money to the Bethesda Hospice to help with annual running costs.
The hospice is the only service supporting inpatients and offering respite care for people with cancer and other progressive conditions within Lewis and Harris.
Annual running costs for the hospice amount to around £450,000 per year and they are dependent on charitable donations and fundraising from the local community.
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The finance manager for Bethesda, Joanne Ferguson, has said the hospice has growing financial concerns.
“With the cost of living affecting everyone, this is becoming more difficult to achieve every year and this means that the hospice is at a real risk of closure,” she said.
With around £14 million invested into three wind turbines which produce around 9MW located in Beinn Ghrideag the PST is the UK’s biggest community wind farm.
The income produced by generating energy from the wind farm, which is around £900,000 each year, is reinvested by the trust into local social, cultural, educational, and environmental developments.
The trust has pledged to support the hospice every year with an annual donation which Ferguson has said will help make a “massive difference”.
She said: “The £55,000 grant from PST is a major contribution towards the running costs of the hospice and I would like to reiterate how grateful we are to Point and Sandwick Trust.
“The annual grant of £55,000 that they so kindly award to Bethesda Hospice makes a massive difference to us.
“The community continues to be very generous to Bethesda Hospice and we are continuing to organise fundraising events.”
PST manager DJ MacSween added: “Bethesda is an organisation that has touched many of our lives and plays an important role in the Western Isles.
“Our 25-year commitment to deliver a grant payment of £55,000 was PST’s first grant pledge and we’re pleased, year on year, to uphold it."
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