THE Alzheimer’s Society and St Leonard’s Hospice have been named as the two beneficiaries of Benenden Healthcare society’s charity grant this year.

The charities, chosen after a nomination and selection process, will be the recipients of fundraising undertaken by Benenden employees.

Neil Barrow, community relations executive at Benenden Healthcare, said the Alzheimer’s Society as the national recipient was not a hard choice for the organisation to make.

He said: “Staff overwhelmingly voted for the Alzheimer’s Society as our national charity of the year and having met with representatives of the charity, I’m really excited about the many opportunities we have for fundraising.”

St Leonard’s Hospice, the local beneficiary and a charity that Benenden had previously worked with, was another easy choice for the Healthcare society to make, after one employee, Dawn Arundel, witnessed first-hand the quality of care given by the hospice to two of her relatives.

Mr Barrow said: “We’ve got some great fundraising opportunities lined up over the summer, including entering a team in the York Rotary Dragon Boat Challenge and we have employees running in the Jane Tomlinson 10K. It will be a very busy summer, but we’re aiming to raise about £2,000 to begin with, which is far more than we’d normally do in an entire year.”

Both charities have welcomed the anticipated fundraising boost. Mandy Metcalfe, fundraising manager at St Leonard’s Hospice, said: “We’re very pleased that Benenden Healthcare is continuing to help the work of the Hospice with their fundraising.

“We very much rely on the support of local companies to help meet our running costs of more than £3.3 million each year.”

Simon Wallace, area fundraising manager for the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “Dementia is now recognised as the biggest social and healthcare challenge of our generation so it is fantastic that an organisation such as Benenden have chosen to support us in this way.”