Seasonal CDs for festive funds (From Penarth Times)

Seasonal CDs for festive funds

A LEADING media company has donated thousands of festive CDs to aid a local hospice. Quadrant, a Cardiff based company, has given 4,000 Christmas carol CDs to help raise money for Marie Curie's Holme Tower Hospice in Penarth.

Quadrant's chief executive Bill Jenkins said: "In the past we have taken advantage of our event-management and public relation skills to organise activities to raise valuable funds for the charity Marie Curie."

There will be an annual carol concert run by Quadrant at St John's Church in Cardiff.

And the company also donates money to charity instead of buying Christmas cards.

The 16-track disc, titled A Christmas Celebration, features traditional and non-traditional carols.

It includes such songs as Once in Royal David's City and Torches.

Each track is sung by Llanfrechfa Parish choir from the Gwent Valleys.

Holme Tower Hospice relies heavily on fund-raising by the general public.

The hospice is the only Marie Curie-funded cancer care unit in Wales.

All the proceeds from the CD sales will go to the home.

Adele Shepherd, regional fund-raiser for the charity, said: "It costs over £1.5 million to provide our specialist services at Holme Tower and selling the goods we will be able to raise about £20,000."

She added that with this donation from Quadrant the hospice can continue to provide free expert care and attention to cancer sufferers.

The Penarth hospice offers home care as well as residential care for people with cancer and their families.

It is one of Marie Curie's ten centres throughout Britain, none of which charge for any of its services.

It has an annual running cost of £58 million.

The Christmas carol CD is available to purchase from all Marie Curie shops in Cardiff, Penarth and Abergavenny or by telephoning 01873 303010.