Demelza Hospice Care for Children has received a £3,000 donation

Demelza Hospice Care for Children has received a £3,000 donation from the team building a new power plant for DS Smith’s Kemsley paper mill, helping the charity to provide more hours of support for children with serious or terminal conditions when they need it the most. 

Energy provider E.ON and its civil works contractor, Civils Contracting Ltd, are constructing a new combined heat and power plant for DS Smith at Kemsley. The site crews were keen to raise funds for charity as part of their efforts and organised a health and safety incentive, rewarding team members with vouchers for good safety performance.

The value of those vouchers was then matched by the site team to a total of £3,000 which has been donated to Demelza Hospice Care for Children.

Mary Haisman, Senior Corporate Partnerships Executive at Demelza, said: “88% of our funding comes from our generous supporters and the Coronavirus pandemic has meant our fundraising has taken a huge hit. We are working hard to develop new ways of raising money to support our services now and in the future, so we’re grateful to everyone involved in this initiative. £3,000 is the equivalent of over 157 hours of care by a specialist Demelza nurse, supporting children with serious or terminal conditions across the South East. A massive thanks goes out to E.ON and Civils Contracting Ltd and their innovative way of fundraising to support Demelza.”

E.ON’s Project Director for the Kemsley site, Martyn Thompson, added: “Demelza do such amazing work for children with serious or terminal conditions and their families, and even though safety is hugely important on a construction site like this, each member of the construction staff made an extra effort as they knew it would result in extra donations to such a good cause.

“The Kemsley project has been very challenging, especially during the Covid pandemic, but we’re pleased to say it is almost complete and the paper mill will have a more efficient and more sustainable energy source for the long term.”                             

This new plant will replace the existing combined heat and power plant at Kemsley and due to the modern technology, will provide a more efficient source of electricity and steam for the DS Smith paper-making process for the next 15 years.