By Leicester Mercury | Posted: 02 September, 2015
On this very day, 30 years ago, the keys were officially handed over and LOROS was able to welcome the very first patient to its Groby Road Hospice.
The dream of having a local hospice caring for local people across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland had actually become a reality, thanks to the help of one woman, Anne Kind.
Anne, now 93, was tasked with the job of fundraising the money to build LOROS, three decades ago.
"At first I didn't want to do it. I said I would trial the job for just six months but then, two years later and I had managed to raise £1.5 million."
Mother-of-two Anne, of Oadby, had originally trained as a nurse. When she heard a LOROS committee had been formed, with the hope of building a Hospice in Leicestershire, she knew she wanted to be involved.
"I had an interview and they eventually told me they wanted me to be a fundraiser.
"That wasn't my idea I said. I'd never raised funds before, I told them I think they'd come to the wrong person.
"But they said no, we've been told you're very good."
Anne went home and discussed the role with her husband, Bill.
"When I told Bill, he said, you can do it.
"I said to him, what? Raise £1.5million, I wouldn't even know where to start. But he told me I could do it. So I decided to give it a go."
Anne managed to gain the support from people all over Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland and soon, she had formed dozens of links across the city and county.
"I made hundreds of phone calls," she said.
"And I suddenly found there were lots of people interested, they wanted to help - they just needed somebody to encourage them.
"I set up 64 support groups in total and between us, we did it in two years.
"People were giving; people were having coffee mornings and little fairs. People were doing all sorts of things for Loros and it was just amazing.
"They didn't worry about it, they knew their money would be used in the right way. I didn't realise just how many good people there were. People were so generous.
"We started off without any money but we did it because people believed in us."
After raising the money, Anne watched as LOROS was gradually built, brick by brick.
"It really was wonderful and the way they've continued to make it into such a beautiful place is lovely," she said.
When the Hospice was officially opened by Prince Charles and Princess Diana, Anne was among those involved in showing Prince Charles round the Hospice.
"Charles was so interested and asked lots questions, it was really nice," she says.
In 1990, five years after the Hospice had been built, Anne received a letter from the Prime Minister asking if she could give Anne's name to the Queen for an OBE.
"I didn't believe it," she says.
"I put the letter into a cupboard and shut the door because I didn't think it was real,"
"I felt they couldn't give an OBE to everybody so I had been given one on behalf of all of the individual support groups – they were the ones who really did all of the work", says Anne, who continued working at LOROS until she retired in 1987.
"It is amazing to think how far LOROS has come. Especially because it wasn't anything at first, you couldn't even touch it; it was just in people's minds.
"When I was raising that money, I had no idea how big it was going to become but I knew it would be something that I wanted."
Were you one of the volunteers who helped Anne raise £1.5million 30 years ago? Or maybe you organised an event to raise money to build the Hospice? The team at LOROS would love to hear from you. Get in touch by emailing: stories@loros.co.uk
