Marie Curie

Providing care and support through terminal illness

The partnership with Pears Foundation has proved to be a tremendous success, helping Marie Curie to achieve incredible goals, as well as plan for the future. This would have not been possible without the understanding Pears Foundation has demonstrated for our work and the needs it faces, specifically through their support to Marie Curie Nursing Service both at a local and national level. We are grateful for the confidence Pears Foundation has shown in this partnership and their commitment to its longevity.
Matthew Reed, Chief Executive,
Marie Curie
Good care towards the end of life should be a priority for any caring society. My family is proud to support our local Marie Curie Hospice as well as the nationwide team of nurses, whose skills and compassion have touched the lives of thousands of families.
Sir Trevor Pears CMG

Partner since: 2006

Funding invested: £3.5m

  • Core: Community nursing service; Hampstead Hospice; Pay for a Day matched giving challenge
  • Capital: Hampstead Hospice

Pears Foundation supports organisations that promote and enhance wellbeing, including for those coming to the end of their lives.

It may not be easy to think and talk about ‘a good death’ but it is a subject society cannot afford to ignore. Currently over 400,000 people in the UK have palliative care needs each year but one in four of them do not receive the care and support they need. The gap is increasing as the population ages and more people are living with terminal illness and increasingly complex health needs.

Pears Foundation has a longstanding partnership with Marie Curie, which supports people and their families living with terminal illness.

Marie Curie believes that everyone should have the right to excellent care, life-enriching experiences and dignity right until the end of their life. This means receiving relief for pain and other symptoms; having control over when, where and how they are cared for and having access to spiritual, psychological, emotional and family support.

The charity provides support for more than 40,000 people and their families, across the UK, each year through the direct provision of services and information as well as research, advocacy and policy.

  • Around 2,000 Marie Curie nurses work around the clock in people’s homes, providing hands-on care and emotional support to enable them to be cared for at home in their final days.
  • Marie Curie’s nine hospices are regional centres of excellence in palliative care. The range of services available is geared towards helping people stay as well as possible for as long as possible, and to make the most of the time they have left with their loved ones.
  • The charity provides an information and support service on all aspects of living, or caring for someone, with a terminal illness.
  • Marie Curie is also the UK’s biggest funder of research into palliative and end of life care

In 2006 Pears Foundation led a capital appeal to refurbish the Marie Curie Hospice in Hampstead, close to the Foundation’s office. Since then, we have continued to support Marie Curie on many levels including core funding for the community nursing service and enabling the pilot of a Pay for a Day fundraising campaign which, over its first three years, raised £1.6m towards the core costs of Marie Curie’s hospices.