I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas and you have spent it with people you care about.

As the Christmas festivities come to a close and the New Year begins, I am delighted to share some Bury Hospice events that we have planned.

The hospice will be once again be running its Christmas Tree Collection service between Friday, January 13 through to Sunday, January, 15, across the BL0, BL8, BL9, M25, M26, M45 postcode areas – and Ainsworth, Bradley Fold, Harwood and Bradshaw.

As a charity we are always looking for resourceful ways to raise money and our Christmas Tree Collection is not only a fundraiser but an incredibly useful service for the people of Bury.

We don’t charge to collect your tree – we simply ask for families to register their Christmas tree online by midnight on Sunday, January 8 and give a donation.

Our tree-cycling is a business-supported initiative, with local firms getting behind the campaign by donating vans, people and resources.

The initiative is supported by Bespoke Landscapes, Ashley Edge Gardening Services, ParcelFast, Lostock Installations, Senior Waste Removals, Ferriday Motor Bodies, A&A Couriers, Timothy’s NW, Manchester Safety Services, Newtons of Bury, DD Exhibitions, Cosalea Café & Bar and our great team of volunteers.

Warren Senior, who runs Senior Waste Removals, is one of the businesses who supports the Christmas Tree Collection service.

He got involved having experienced the impact and importance the hospice has during the final days of life when his dad and close friend were patients.

Warren now spends much of his spare time raising money for the hospice.

A donation of £10 could pay for a three-course evening meal for a patient, while a donation of £20 could cover the cost of an hour of compassionate nursing care and £100 could pay for a day of nursing care in the hospice or in the community.

To arrange for your Christmas tree to be collected, visit www.just-helping.org.uk/register-tree.

To celebrate the New Year, the hospice has just launched its latest challenge which is an absolute scorcher – walking across burning hot coals.

The Firewalk Challenge, will be delivered by UK Firewalk and will take place at Woodbank Cricket Club on Thursday, February 23. Participants will receive training before they take on their challenge.

We would love to encourage all daredevils to join us for this challenge. If you would like to hot foot it across the coals and raise money for the hospice, contact Rachel Krafft, our community fundraiser on 0161 797 1748 or email rachelkrafft@buryhospice.org.uk or visit https://www.buryhospice.org.uk/events/firewalk.

Finally, I would like to wish you all a happy New Year – and thank you for your continued support for the hospice.