Vincents commercial head takes up hospice role

Lancashire’s St Catherine’s Hospice has appointed Mark Alexander to chair a working group to develop the St Catherine’s Association.

Mark, who is head of commercial law at Vincents Solicitors in Preston, will be involved with developing the Association to make it more representative of the communities the hospice serves.

Mark Alexander said: “The Association has existed as long as the hospice but its membership has dwindled, so our aim is to reinvigorate it in order to make it better represent the communities, cultures and backgrounds the charity serves.

“The recent 30th anniversary of St Catherine’s provides an excellent opportunity to kick-start the redevelopment of the Association and I am delighted to be involved as chairman of the working group.

"Patients often come to St Catherine’s to receive specialist help with complex symptom management and later return home again. Day therapy is also provided each week day, there is a lymphoedema clinic called The Woodside, dedicated family support and education teams, and a team of expert community Clinical Nurse Specialists who visit people in their own homes.

Lorraine Charlesworth, St Catherine’s director of income generation, said: “We felt the 30th anniversary was a good opportunity to begin work developing the Association - recruiting a new generation of people to get involved with the hospice. We need people with a range of different skills who want to help an important local cause as it begins another exciting new chapter, looking ahead to the next 30 years and beyond.

St Catherine’s Hospice is a local charity which is here to help people in Central Lancashire affected by life-shortening conditions such as cancer, heart failure and motor neurone disease to have quality of life and comfort and dignity in death. It costs £5m to run the hospice’s specialised services each year, of which £3.7m must be raised through charitable support. Mark Alexander is a member of the senior management team at Vincents Solicitors, the Lancashire-wide firm headquartered at Winckley Square in Preston with six offices throughout the county. He is also a trustee at the Foxton Centre, a Preston-based homeless charity.