Award-winning Liam will host I Love Winchester Hospice event

HE’S an Emmy award-winning radio and television personality in America - but Hampshire-born Liam Mayclem is delighted to be making a ‘virtual’ return to his home county when he hosts a key Winchester Hospice fundraising event.

Liam will be the host for the ‘I Love Winchester Hospice’ online auction and entertainment event on Friday, February 5 – and the organisers of this special evening are delighted and honoured to have the talented and experienced charity champion at the helm.

“Fundraising is my main passion,” said Liam. “I conduct more than 50-plus charity auctions and events a year and over 10 years have helped raise millions of dollars for dozens of non-profits and schools around the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond including good causes in London, Bali and New York.”

Liam is good friends with Winchester Hospice Ambassador Mike Bridge, who is one of the team behind the   ‘I Love Winchester Hospice’ event, and he was delighted to provide his help and support when Mike told him about the planned fundraiser.

“I am looking forward to hosting this important and fun fundraising event,” said Liam. “There are some fabulous lots in the online auction, and this will be a great evening, with cocktail-making, music and a raffle adding to the fun.

“I am also looking forward to helping to spread the word about why the Winchester Hospice campaign is so important. It is great news that the fundraising appeal is closing in on the sum needed to get the hospice open in the Summer, and the ‘I Love Winchester Hospice’ event will hopefully take the campaign a lot closer to the target.”

‘I Love Winchester Hospice’ will take place just a few days before Valentine’s Day – and the Winchester Hospice fundraising team hope it’s an event that people locally and further afield will love supporting and being involved with.

The hospice fundraising appeal is now more than 90 per cent of the way towards the £3.7million target needed to get it open in the Summer. The fundraising journey will then enter the next stage as around £400,000 needs to be raised through public donations every year to help the Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust-run hospice meet its annual running costs.

The Friday, February 5 fundraiser will be live streamed from 7pm-8pm. A fantastic trip to San Francisco, a bottle of Champagne signed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a signed and framed Take That prize, a Zoom cookery masterclass with MasterChef UK 2016 champion Jane Devonshire, and a racquet signed by tennis legend Boris Becker are just a few of the fabulous 30 lots that will be up for auction.

To find out more about the ‘I Love Winchester Hospice’ event, including how to register, please go to www.charityauction.bid/LoveWH. Online bidding on the auction lots will open on Friday, January 29.