Quiz at your local to help support St Barnabas Hospice

Pubs can sign up free of charge to host a pub quiz in support of the Hospice.

In return, the Hospice will send them a pre-written quiz, posters, collection pot and branded beer mats in a variety of designs to display on the night.

All pubs or quizmasters need to do is choose the date and start promoting it to customers.

Paisley Paddison, Fundraising Officer at St Barnabas Hospice, said: “Here at the Hospice, we support more than 10,500 patients and their families each year with end-of-life care.

“Our annual fundraising target to keep those care services running is over £6 million.

“The Pub Quiz is designed to bring the community together with a fun night at their local.

“All we ask is that those taking part in the quiz consider donating the cost of a pint, a bottle of wine or even a round of drinks to support St Barnabas Hospice in the future.

“Just £14.58 would allow our nurses to care for a patient in their own home for an hour.”

To help pubs run the quizzes, the hospice’s fundraising team can assist with planning.

Paisley added: “Once pubs sign up, they will receive a pub quiz pack to start promoting.

“Details of participating pubs will then have their quizzes added to the St Barnabas website for promotion.”

One of the first pubs to sign up for a quiz was Lincoln’s Queen in the West, where Donna Fellows is the landlady and also works as a Clinical Administrator at the city’s St Barnabas Hospice’s Inpatient Unit.

The Queen in the West has an extra special connection to the Hospice as Donna’s mum Glenis, who was also a landlady in the West End of Lincoln, was cared for in the Inpatient Unit in 2019 and 2020 before she died.

Donna said, “Mum was diagnosed with bowel cancer, which had a devastating effect on the family. The disease was cruel, and the mum we knew and loved completely changed in the last eighteen months of her life. Seeing her suffer was awful, especially when we knew she was in constant pain.

“As Christmas approached, her symptoms increased, and we could see the pain getting worse. That’s when it was suggested for her to go to the St Barnabas Inpatient Unit. The team there were just wonderful. They reviewed her medication, reassured us all and gave us time to talk about Mum’s illness and the impact it was having on all the family.

“On Christmas Eve we brought Mum home for our traditional family meal, but she was absolutely exhausted by the time we dropped her back off at the Hospice. The staff went above and beyond to make her peaceful that Christmas, dimming the lights and placing special lanterns at the end of each patient’s bed. It was such a gentle, beautiful moment and we all shed a tear knowing that it would be Mum’s last Christmas.

“In her years working behind the bar at her pub and when she visited my pub, Mum adored pub quizzes. She would always help teams out with answers and particularly enjoyed the 60s music round.

“It felt only right that Mum’s story was used for the launch of a campaign based in a pub. We will be holding ours at the Queen in the West early next year, and I hope lots of our friends and regulars come out to join us.

“Mum would be so pleased to see that we are doing this in her honour, and to thank the wonderful people at St Barnabas who cared for her in her hour of need.”

To find out more, just email [email protected] or call 01522 540 300.