Member Article

Erimus continues support of Teesside Hospice

A North East insurance broker has supported a local hospice through one of its toughest years to date by raising over £6,000 and negotiating a significant settlement on behalf of the charity.

Erimus, which is based in Stockton, pledged to donate £50 for every new client it obtained between July 1st, 2020 and December 31st, 2020 to Teesside Hospice, with the final total amounting to £6,400.

The firm also helped to negotiate a six-figure settlement for the hospice’s Business Interruption claim.

Through outreach work and its Middlesbrough palliative care centre, Teesside Hospice provides support to those affected by terminal illnesses across the region. The charity, which relies on donations, has suffered great loss since the start of the pandemic with its network of shops closed and fundraising events put on hold.

David Smith, Teesside Hospice chief executive, said: “It’s been a really tough twelve months and our network of shops have lost roughly £550,000 in sales while being closed due to restrictions.

“Both the financial donation and the support we’ve received from Erimus through the settlement process will have a huge benefit, with the funds going towards patient care and associated nursing costs.

“We need to raise £7,000 a day to keep the hospice open and continue providing treatment, so the £6,400 raised is a huge boost as it almost funds a full day for someone in need. When Erimus first launched the pledge, we had no idea it would raise that much, so we were delighted with the final total.”

Paul Davison, Erimus commercial director, added: “It’s always a good feeling when you raise a certain amount for a charity as special as Teesside Hospice, but to learn that that money will go directly towards funding the hospice for a day is indescribable.”

As well as its financial contribution, Erimus has also provided guidance to the hospice as it negotiated a settlement figure through its Business Interruption policy. Thanks to the guidance of the team, Teesside Hospice were advised to wait for the judgement of the FCA Test Case, which fell in its favour and increased its overall pay-out.

Paul explained: “Teesside Hospice are one of a select few policyholders that had a clause in their insurance contract meaning they could possibly make a business interruption claim, but due to ambiguous wording there was some uncertainty over whether Covid-19 was covered or not.

“We managed the relationship between the hospice and the loss adjustor to ensure it got the settlement it deserved.”

David added: “This was a really complex process and there were times where we questioned whether it was going to be worth it, but the guidance from the Erimus team was invaluable and meant we were able to see it through and successfully receive the claim.

“This will go a huge way towards recouping some of the money we’ve lost in the last year and we couldn’t have done it without Erimus’ support.”

Furthering its support for the organisation, Erimus also covered the cost of insuring five vans needed to make the Teesside Hospice Christmas Tree collection a success. As part of the campaign, the hospice collected 2,255 Christmas trees from around Teesside in exchange for a donation, before recycling them in the community.

Thanks to Erimus’ backing, plus that of other local businesses and volunteers, the £25,000 raised as part of the initiative was all profit to fund the hospice.

David said: “Overall, Erimus is a really refreshing organisation to work with because the team are so proactive and on hand.

“Even though we haven’t been able to meet up face to face, they’ve always made themselves available to us, really taken an interest in our organisation and care about the work we do. It’s been a true partnership between us.”

Paul added: “The Teesside Hospice team are fantastic to work with and we’ve been delighted to be able to play our part in helping them get back on their feet.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Harvey & Hugo .