Staff and customers at seven Yorkshire Garden Centres have raised over £106,000 for Martin House hospice since April 2025, from dragon boats to 25p at the till.
Yorkshire Garden Centres has raised more than £106,000 for Martin House Children’s Hospice at Boston Spa since the two began working together in April 2025, the hospice said on 30 October. The partnership runs until June 2027.
The money has come from staff and customers at the company’s seven centres: Bingley, Deans Scarborough, Deans York, Otley, Pennine, Tingley and Tong. Martin House cares for children and young people from across North Yorkshire, including the Harrogate district, as well as West and East Yorkshire.
How £106,000 was raised
Each centre has its own charity champion and its own fundraising target, according to the hospice. Bake sales and raffles sit alongside bigger efforts:
- 25p at the till. The Pennies scheme lets customers add 25p to their purchase at the checkout.
- Personal challenges. Staff have done Dry January and the Great North Run.
- Cycling. Chief executive Mark Farnsworth has organised cycling challenges and ridden in them.
- Dragon boats. Colleagues entered two sunflower-themed teams in Martin House’s Dragon Boat Race.
- A spinathon. Staff pedalled exercise bikes in store until they had covered the distance from their own centre to the hospice.
- THE BUILD. Last year the company raised more than £7,000 in Martin House’s 36-hour giving challenge for THE BUILD, the hospice’s redevelopment.
2 photos, swipe or scroll. Photos: supplied by Martin House Children's Hospice
What they said
Mark Farnsworth, chief executive of Yorkshire Garden Centres, said: “Reaching more than £100,000 is a fantastic milestone and is down to the enthusiasm of our colleagues, customers and charity champions across all seven of our centres.”
“Martin House does incredible work for children and families across Yorkshire, and our teams have really embraced the partnership. Whether it’s taking on a personal challenge, jumping into a dragon boat or simply asking customers to add 25p at the till, everyone has found their own way to get involved.”
“We’re incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved together so far and look forward to continuing our support.”
2 photos, swipe or scroll. Photos: supplied by Martin House Children's Hospice
Hannah Finan, partnership manager at Martin House, said: “We’re hugely grateful to everyone at Yorkshire Garden Centres for reaching this incredible milestone.”
“What makes the partnership so special is the sheer variety of ways their teams have chosen to support us. From major fundraising challenges to donations, events and welcoming the families we support, their commitment has reached right across Martin House.”
“More than £106,000 is an amazing achievement and will make a real difference to the children, young people and families who rely on our care.”
In the centres
Much of the money has come in a few pounds at a time, in store. The hospice’s pictures show staff at Bingley and Scarborough spinathons, with Martin House flags and balloons by the tills, and a table of cakes and treats laid out at Tong.
3 photos, swipe or scroll. Photos: supplied by Martin House Children's Hospice
More than money
The company has also given things. Staff have donated items to Martin House’s shops, put up prizes for its Glitter Ball auction and given Lego to the hospice. Yorkshire Garden Centres has made table centres for the Martin House Ladies’ Lunches and invited children and families from the hospice to its Christmas events and to the opening of its Grass Hoppers play centre at Otley.
2 photos, swipe or scroll. Photos: supplied by Martin House Children's Hospice
Another Yorkshire business, the Whixley nursery Johnsons, has given the hospice 1,300 spring bulbs for the gardens around its rebuilt wings.
What Martin House does
Martin House has cared for children and young people with life-shortening conditions since 1987: children who are not expected to live beyond young adulthood. Each year it supports more than 550 of them and their families, and around 200 bereaved family members, across West, North and East Yorkshire. Families pay nothing.
Care is given at the hospice in Boston Spa, which has nine bedrooms in its children’s wing and six in its teenage wing, in hospitals and in families’ own homes. It covers planned short breaks, symptom management, emergency care, community care and end-of-life care, 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
That costs around £13 million a year, the hospice says, and most of it comes from voluntary donations and fundraising.
What it means for you
If you shop at any of the seven centres before June 2027, you can add 25p to your bill for Martin House at the till. To give directly, volunteer or set up your own fundraiser, Martin House’s website has the details (registered charity 517919).
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