Tesco Desmond store manager Bryan Taylor makes a £500 donation to Lucy Smith of St Oswalds Hospice.
photo: John Millard

Tesco Metro Jesmond has donated £500 to St Oswald’s Hospice on its 30^th anniversary, the fourth donation they’ve made to local businesses this year.

The store on Acorn Road receives an annual community budget every year to provide local level support. As well as their most recent donation to St Oswald’s Hospice, in July at the end of the last school term, they held a competition which led to West Jesmond Primary School receiving a cheque for £500 to put towards school funds.

In September the store made further cash donations to Jesmond Library and Jesmond Community Leisure.

Store manager Brian Taylor chose St Oswald’s Hospice at Gosforth as the latest business to receive the store’s support because it “is close to the hearts of colleagues and customers, and many have personal experience of its care.

“[They] deliver an extremely high quality service so I am delighted we are in a position to support them.”

The hospice has purpose-built facilities offering a range of flexible services to families across the region. These services include adult care for inpatients, a day hospice, daily respite and child services. Costing over £11m a year to run, the Gosforth-based hospice has to raise £7.5m of that through donations.

Lucy Smith, senior fundraiser at St Oswald’s Hospice said: “The donation will help us to continue providing care and support to our local community. It is a huge challenge to raise £7m every year so we really appreciate the support of Tesco.”

Tesco Desmond store manager Bryan Taylor makes a £500 donation to Lucy Smith of St Oswalds Hospice. photo: John Millard

Back in June of 2015, St Oswald’s Hospice opened a brand new store located on Hazelwood Avenue in Jesmond. The hospice sees this as the local charity “going back to its roots.”

Nikki Maguire of St Oswald’s Hospice told JesmondLocal that they recognise themselves as “founded in Jesmond.”

Dorothy Jameson was an active member of St George’s Church in Jesmond in the 1970s and she harnessed the support of local residents to bring St Oswald’s into being in 1986. She is recognised as the hospice’s founder.

Their shop in Jesmond, stocking vintage ladies and gents clothing, jewellery and accessories in a boutique-style environment, is said to be able to “forge lasting relationships with the local community.”

As part of Tesco Metro Jesmond’s desire to support the local community they serve, the store held a competition for pupils from schools located in the immediate area. Before the end of the school term back in July, Tesco Metro Jesmond invited local primary school pupils to design a poster which highlighted what they love about their local area.

Back Row: Tesco store manager, Brian Taylor, head teacher Gary Wallis-Clarke Front row: Winning child: Grace Wingfield, age eleven with pupils from West Jesmond Primary School

From hundreds of entries, it was Grace Wingfield, aged 11, from West Jesmond Primary, who won. Her picture included the swimming pool, the local library, Bell’s Yard and, of course, Tesco.

Winning child: Grace Wingfield, age eleven with pupils from West Jesmond Primary School

The 11 year old’s winning picture was transferred onto limited edition hessian bags which were given away free of charge at the Jesmond store, and have now sold out. Wingfield also won a £500 donation for her school and a £25 gift card for herself.

Taylor went to a special assembly at West Jesmond Primary School to present Grace with her prize.

He said the picture from the 11 year old “looks great on the bags. I love hearing what young people like about the local area so I was delighted that Grace thinks Tesco is one of the best things in Jesmond!”

The school’s Community Arts co-ordinator, Deborah Hainsworth, added: “The pupils were excited to take part in the competition and they put a lot of thought into what aspects of local life they wanted to draw.

“Grace cleverly divided her design into four so she could do separate pictures for the swimming pool, the library, Bell’s Yard and Tesco. We’re all thrilled that one of our pupils was successful and I know the picture will bring a smile to customers at Tesco.”

Hainsworth told JesmondLocal  that the school plans to put the £500 towards keeping their school eco-friendly and maintaining their Green Flag award.

In September this year, Tesco Metro Jesmond also donated to two community facilities, again to benefit the local people.

A £1,000 donation was made to Friends of Jesmond Library to help with the upkeep of the library. Taylor said: “we wanted to say thank you for all their hard work with a donation.”

Catherine Walker, from Friends of Jesmond Library, said: “This generous donation…will help us a great deal. The volunteers work extremely hard to provide the service for the community and we rely on support like this.”

A further £500 donation was made to Jesmond Community Leisure who has already started the groundwork to make improvements to the small garden area alongside the building with the money.

Phil Drape told JesmondLocal that these improvements would hopefully “be done for the improving weather next year.”