Norfolk’s Freemasons raise over £13,000 for new hospice appeal

Our new hospice appeal is benefitting from the continued support of Norfolk’s Freemasons, with over £13,000 raised to date.

Each year Stephen Allen, the Head of Norfolk Freemasons, chooses a specific charity to support and this year selected Priscilla Bacon Hospice. Stephen said; “I am delighted that brethren have so willingly backed my decision to raise money for Priscilla Bacon Hospice. Over the last few months, prior to the pandemic, Norfolk Lodges have held a wonderful variety of social events ranging from golf days to cabaret nights and well over £13,000 has been donated to the hospice appeal. We look forward to continuing to raise funds together once current restrictions are lifted and we can get together again.”

Mark Nicholas, CEO of the Priscilla Bacon Hospice appeal, said; “We are thrilled that the Provincial Grand Master has given his support to the campaign through this most generous organisation. The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of having a ‘good death’ surrounded by your loved ones. The new Priscilla Bacon Hospice will have 24 beds, which is a 50% increase on the current Priscilla Bacon Lodge and will coordinate the Hospice at Home service to ensure that more people in Norfolk and Waveney can have a ‘good death’”.

Freemasonry under the United Grand Lodge of England is the UK’s largest fraternal and charitable organisations with 350,000 Masons in the UK. In Norfolk there are 76 Lodges and approximately 3,000 members. The society allows men over 21 years from all walks of life, and all political, religious and ethnic backgrounds to meet and work together as equals, including raising funds to support a huge variety of charities and community groups. This support is never more relevant than during the current Covid-19 pandemic, and Norfolk Freemasons have teamed up with Loddon-based production firm Panel Graphic to supply vital face shields to community carers and health visitors across the county.

A recent grant to Norfolk Scrubs Volunteers enabled them to purchase material to make 1,000 more sets of medical grade scrubs for NHS hospital staff and front line health workers. Working together with Freemasons in Essex, Herefordshire and Suffolk, a grant of £100,000 was made to the University of East Anglia to install a machine capable of testing 2,000 patient blood samples a day for Covid-19 antibodies from mid-July.