Anne Merriman

[p][b][u]HELLO and THANK YOU for your continued love and support.[/u][/b][/p][p]A little update from us. Anne was walking well daily until she recently had a fall at her home in Kampala, though that hasn't stopped her fundraising attempts!! She is recovering well at home, after a slight fracture to the hip but would love to see your sponsorship and support continue so that she can carry on walking when she is better!![/p][p][br][/p][p]Over the last few weeks you have all proven that Liverpool native, and Irish by adoption, 84-year-old Dr Anne Merriman, will never walk alone![/p][p]Inspired by 100-year-old Captain Tom Moore, Anne set out to raise vital funds by doing 25 laps of her balcony at her home in Kampala, Uganda, every day to save Hospice Africa Uganda.[/p][p]In a few short weeks Anne has raised an incredible £30,000. She has completed 370 laps.[/p][p][b]Today she is making a new appeal[/b][/p][p]Anne would dearly love to raise £85,000 of their £100,000 needed, by her 85th birthday which takes place on May 13th.[/p][p]Dr Anne has devoted decades of her life to helping the suffering in Africa, founding Hospice Africa Uganda in 1993 to ensure sick and dying patients find dignity at the end of life. In the last 26 years thousands of patients have been supported in their final days thanks to dedicated Hospice Teams and the use of oral liquid morphine.[/p][p]Sadly, Hospice Africa Uganda is facing a critical cash crisis. And patients are suffering. Vital fundraising has ground to a halt due to Covid-19 restrictions and social isolation in the main donor countries – the UK, France, Ireland and the USA. The charity’s shops in Liverpool and France are now closed.[/p][p]Already the number of patients Hospice Africa Uganda are supporting has decreased in recent weeks. Hospice care staff have taken a pay freeze. [/p][p]Anne has spent 40 years in Africa. Her nomination for a Nobel prize in 2014 was recognition of her work in introducing palliative care to Africa since 1993 and her work in Singapore which also produced the magic formula for affordable oral morphine, in the 1980s, which led to her subsequent success with her inspirational charity in Uganda reaching to all in need of palliative care in Africa. [/p][p][i]You can help Anne, never to walk alone by sponsoring as much as you can, per lap covered.[/i][/p][p][b]Some Facts:[/b][/p][p]· £25 will treat a Hospice Africa Uganda patient for one month. The price of a round of drinks on a night out.[/p][p]· It costs £1 million a year to fund the three Hospice Africa Uganda units in Kampala, Mbarara and Hoima. Between them they look after approximately 2,000 patients in their homes.[/p][p]· Since 1993, Hospice Africa Uganda has trained over 10,000 health professionals in African countries in palliative care through the Institute of Palliative Care.[/p][p]· Palliative care has now been introduced and is working in 37 of the 54 African countries (by comparison there were only three with palliative care in 1993, the year Hospice Africa was founded).[/p]