City Legacy Homes – developers of The Athletes’ Village – has presented a cheque for £60,000 to the ‘Brick by Brick Appeal’, which is raising funds to build a new purpose built facility for Glasgow’s Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice.
Earlier this year, City Legacy pledged to donate £300 for each of the 300 homes sold at The Village, which will add up to a grand total of £90,000 when all sales are finalised. With homes selling faster than expected, a cheque for the first £60,000 was presented by City Legacy’s equity partners to the Hospice’s Chief Executive, Rhona Baillie, and Carol Smillie, ambassador for the Hospice.
The Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice (PPWH) currently provides specialist care for around 1200 terminally ill people in Glasgow from its city centre premises. The existing facility is operating at full capacity and there is no room to expand or enhance the services provided, or to meet increasing demand. The ‘Brick by Brick Appeal’ aims to raise £15 million of the £21 million needed to build a new modern hospice fit for the 21st century in Bellahouston Park.
City Legacy’s donation of £60,000 could provide – for example – one full patient bedroom, three ward kitchens, or six fully accessible toilet and shower rooms for the new facility.
Calum Murray, director of CCG and part of the City Legacy consortium said, “We felt it was important that City Legacy gave something back to the people of Glasgow by contributing to a charity which directly makes a huge difference for hundreds of Glasgow families every single day, and PPWH certainly does that. Homes at The Village are selling faster than we could ever have imagined, with sell-out expected by Christmas, so we hope to be able to present a further £30,000 to this wonderful cause in the very near future.”
Rhona Baillie, chief executive of the Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice added, “City Legacy has been a fantastic supporter and we are very grateful to them. This is a significant donation which will help our team to provide quality care to the people of Glasgow for generations to come. The new hospice will be purpose-built to give our patients and families privacy, compassion and the very best end-of-life care.”
The Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice is one of three nominated charities which have benefitted from cash donations from City Legacy. In July 2014, a cheque for £10,000 was presented to former Olympian and word- breaking middle distance runner Kip Keino, to help hundreds of young Kenyan orphans and aspiring athletes receive shelter, healthcare and quality education through the Kip Keino Foundation. In March 2015, City Legacy also donated £5000 to Oxfam’s Emergency Responses fund for the residents of the tiny Pacific nation of Vanuatu, which was left devastated by Cyclone Pam. The Vanuatu Team of 12 athletes, occupied three houses at the Athletes’ Village when they competed in last year’s Commonwealth Games.
