Hartlepool's Alice House Hospice praises community response after masked yob's hammer attack
A hospice boss has praised the public for their “incredibly kind reaction” after a hammer attack by a masked yob.
The still undetected person smashed the front doors of Hartlepool’s Alice House Hospice last month before fleeing the grounds.
The Wells Avenue hospice believes the attack, which took place at 9.45pm on Saturday, November 1, was “an intentional act of vandalism” rather than an attempted robbery.
It has now thanked the community for donating money to fund the repair costs as well as for sending hundreds of messages of support.
Hospice co-chief executive Nicky Haggan said: “The response to this awful situation has once again shown that the good in Hartlepool by far outweighs the bad.
"None of us can understand why someone would act so callously towards a hospice of all places, which relies so heavily on the goodwill of our community.
“What we saw in response to the damage caused was an incredibly kind reaction from local people who gave so generously to cover the cost of the damage, with over £800 in donations from people and businesses received in just one day.
“The money has been used to offset repair costs but it is such a shame that these costs were incurred in the first place.
"Our commitment is to our patients and their family members and we don’t expect to have to fundraise to cover heartless acts of vandalism.
“Thanks go to everyone who came together for the hospice. We really do appreciate it.”
The hospice also thanked hospice patron NE Security for deploying emergency response staff “to ensure that on-duty staff and patients were left feeling safe and supported” following the incident.
It added: “This is a service provided free of charge as part of the company’s support of the hospice.”
Alice House provides care and support to patients affected by incurable illness or the death of a loved one in Hartlepool, Tees Valley and East Durham.
It costs £3.7m to fund these services for one year with the hospice receiving 34% of this in Government funding, leaving a shortfall of over £6,500 to be raised daily.