2025 sees LOROS mark their 40th anniversary in Leicestershire. Providing hospice care for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, it is a charity close to many family’s hearts.
Along with other activities this year, one event that is set to leave a BIG impression is Stomp… a public sculpture trail that will see 40 beautifully designed giant elephant sculptures stampede through Leicester’s streets over 10 weeks.
We caught up with the team at LOROS to find out more about the charity, what they do and what we can expect from this year’s milestone events.
How would you begin to sum up LOROS, its work and its place in Leicester and Leicestershire?
LOROS is an adult hospice that has been serving the communities of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland since 1985. We care for patients with a terminal disease, and support them and their families throughout their illness from diagnosis to end of life. Our support includes an inpatient ward, outreach in people’s homes, counselling, day services, physiotherapy and complementary therapy.
Stomp will be one of your leading campaigns in 2025, what is it all about?
Stomp Round Leicester is a free, family, fun trail of mammoth elephant sculptures that will be weaving a route through the city next summer. There will be 40 giant sculptures to represent 40 years of LOROS in the community, as well as around 70 baby elephant sculptures all painted by local schools and community groups. We hope to get everyone involved in celebrating with us and supporting us to be here for the next 40 years.
How does the money raised through events like Stomp go to help LOROS and to directly help the community?
At LOROS we’re really grateful to our incredible community for helping us be here, helping people for the past 40 years. Increasingly we need to call on our amazing supporters to raise funds for our patients, as four in every five are supported in this way.
Stomp follows a similar campaign with the Rocket Round Leicester trail in 2021, what impact did that have for the charity?
The last trail, Rocket Round Leicester, took place during the covid pandemic, which was such a challenging time for so many of us. As the city unlocked, the Rocket Round Leicester trail launched and it was brilliant because it brought people back out to the city, to rediscover Leicester’s shops and restaurants as well as the wonderful painted Rockets. When we auctioned the sculptures off at the end of the trail it brought in over £270,000 which was incredible! It really helped mitigate the impact of covid which had been quite damaging.
You’re calling out for businesses who may be keen to be a sponsor as part of Stomp, what are the key benefits to businesses getting involved?
There are so many benefits but key ones include being part of an amazing art trail which everyone will love, discovering the power of public art to really move and engage people, but also becoming a supporter of LOROS Hospice, one of the most well known and best loved charities in Leicestershire. Partnering local businesses is what has kept LOROS at the heart of the community for almost 40 years.
The other huge reason is also to invest in this brilliant city! In the Rocket Round Leicester trail, more than 271,000 people visited the sculptures so that represents a huge potential new audience for businesses.
To give people a real view of the scale of LOROS and your work, how much money do you need to raise each year to provide your services?
LOROS is a charity and the cost of care for 4 out of every 5 of our patients is raised through fundraising. Each year we need to bring in £9m of the £11.5m we spend on services for patients and families. So, we are very reliant on the support of our community and we need partners like you!
What are you most looking forward to about Stomp and this year’s campaigns?
We’re looking forward to seeing the impact of 40 mammoth Elephant sculptures on the people of Leicester! We hope the trail will bring the community together for happy memories and fun times to celebrate the rich culture of the city and LOROS Hospice’s place at the heart of it. We also hope that the Elephants will help spark conversations about ‘the elephant in the room’ which for us as a hospice, is society’s attitudes to death and dying. It’s a difficult subject to raise and no one wants to be the first to mention it. But our doctors and nurses tell us that when people talk and make plans for the end of their lives, it really helps those that are left behind. Elephants can be the opportunity to spark these conversations amongst visitors to our sculpture trail.
What is something about LOROS that you think people might not know?
Unlike a hospital, we actively encourage pets on our ward! Pets help people relax and improve their emotional wellbeing as well as bring a smile to everyone’s face, so dogs, cats, rabbits are often seen in the hospice. We’ve also hosted visits from miniature ponies, baby goats, lambs and even a donkey! If a patient would like to see them, we’ll try our best to make it happen!
To find out more about LOROS and keep up to date with news and events, you can follow them on Instagram @loroshospice or on Facebook. You can also visit the website at loros.co.uk.
If you’re a business who would be interested in partnering with Stomp Round Leicester, visit the website at stomproundleicester.co.uk where there is information on how to get involved.