£500,000 Grant Secures Start of Development Work at St Luke's Hospital

Howard Lake | 13 April 2006 | Newswire

St Luke’s Hospital for the Clergy, one of the last remaining charitable hospitals in the UK, has been awarded a grant of £500,000 from the Laing Family Trusts. The grant will fund the modernisation and refurbishment of the hospital’s operating theatre.
The theatre work is part of a much larger development project that the hospital has to carry out in order to comply with current care standards. The total cost of the project is £2.7 million and the hospital has currently raised just over £1.6 million.
John Cherry, Chief Executive of St Luke’s, said:
“The grant from the Laing Family Trusts will help enormously towards the refurbishment costs of the hospital. While we still need to raise a further £1 million, we are now able to start the most essential work. We are very much looking forward to making a start on these important changes. We will close the hospital and hand it over to builders on May 22nd 2006. It will be reopened again in early 2007, in time for the 100th anniversary of the hospital in Fitzroy Square. St Luke’s Hospital will then provide a better service than it ever has before, not only to Anglican clergy in the UK, but also to clergy and missionaries working in third world countries.”
The charity was founded in 1892 and the hospital moved to Fitzroy Square in 1907. It has been providing medical care to Anglican clergy and their families, from both the UK and around the world for over 100 years.
The treatment of clergy and missionaries from outside the UK currently accounts for ten per cent of the hospital’s work. It is hoped this will increase to help those working in countries where health care is poor.
Ends
Media Contact: Fiona Fountain on 01892 544035
Note to Editors
1. St Luke’s provides free medical and surgical treatment for the Anglican clergy, their spouses and dependent children, not only from the UK but also third world countries where health care is inadequate. In addition, it provides vital care for overseas missionaries who would not be covered by our own National Health Service. The aim of the Hospital is to get the clergy back to work as quickly as possible and doing what it does best – helping others.
2. The Laing Family Trusts grant of £500,000 was dependent on “sufficient funds being raised to enable the hospital to proceed with the redevelopment on a financially prudent basis”. It comes from four trusts. The Maurice and Hilda Laing Charitable Trust (£300,000); the Kirby Laing Foundation (£100,000); the Beatrice Laing Trust (£50,000) and the Rufford Maurice Laing Foundation (£50,000).
St Luke’s Hospital for the Clergy
14 Fitzroy Square, London W1T 6AH
Tel. 020 7388 4954
Web: www.stlukeshospital.org.uk
This news release is issued by Fiona Fountain Associates on behalf of St Luke’s Hospital for the Clergy. It is issued in accordance with clause 1.2j of the British Codes of Advertising and Sales Promotion and therefore cannot be subject to a transaction of any kind.

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.