Pictured: Kirsty Merriman, with colleagues at APC Overnight in Hereford who are providing free deliveries for St Michael's Hospice

Hereford's St Michael's Hospice is to benefit from free Herefordshire-wide deliveries thanks to APC Overnight. The local APC branch in Hereford, APC CS Couriers, will provide the next day deliveries to customers buying charity Christmas cards from the hospice. St. Michael's will save around £1000 on postage and packaging costs and use the money to help fund its important palliative care work. 

"Each year, St. Michael's Hospice produces thousands of packs of charity Christmas cards that it sells nationwide, delivered by Royal Mail in previous years. When I received a copy of St. Michael's newsletter recently which included the Christmas card promotion, I contacted the hospice to offer our delivery service free of charge within our region. This meant we could actively support the hospice by allowing them to keep the cash they would normally have to pay out to their previous carrier," says Kirsty Merriman, Managing Director at APC CS Couriers. 

St Michael's Hospice is situated in rural Herefordshire from where it serves local communities across the county and five neighbouring counties. It provides specialist care to individuals who have a life limiting illness and offers support to their families and friends. Since the first patient was admitted on 31st October 1984, more than 20,000 people and their families have benefitted from the care it gives. The hospice is an independent charity and all its services are given free of charge. It costs over £10,000 per day to provide these services and it relies on around 90 per cent of its funding from the community.

"This is a very generous offer from APC Overnight. Kirsty approached us directly to discuss how the local branch would be able to deliver all the packs of cards bought by customers across Herefordshire and donate all the packing and postage costs. It cuts about £1000 from our bills and it means we don't have to spend hours franking individual packages as APC does all the labelling for us, and that saves a lot of admin time. We are delighted to be working locally with APC in this way. Kirsty has also offered to help with future projects, including delivering T-shirts for the next Venus Challenge Midnight Walk for Women," says Nicola Wood, Head of Retail and Trading, St Michael's Hospice.

The APC branch in Hereford is located at a purpose built 3500 square ft site. Its customers include the cider company H Weston & Sons, Wye Valley Brewery and natural gardening company Wiggly Wigglers. With a team of 19 staff and a large fleet of APC-liveried delivery vehicles, the Hereford facility handles more than 180,000 consignments for next day delivery to every corner of the UK through the APC Overnight nationwide network.