HUNDREDS of people remembered loved ones at a special service hosted by Oxford hospice Sobell House.

Organisers printed 500 programmes for the Lights of Love service – but hundreds were left without due to the number of people who attended.

So far, organisers say more than £32,000 has been collected as part of the Lights of Love campaign, and that the total could top £34,000.

As part of the campaign, people who have lost loved ones after they have been cared for at Sobell House write messages on red discs which are attached to lights draped over a Christmas tree outside the hospice’s entrance at the Churchill Hospital in exchange for a donation. So far some 1,100 have been fixed to the tree.

Derek Strong, whose father Bert was cared for at Sobell House in July 2008, said he attended the service to show how much he appreciated what the hospice had done.

Mr Strong, who is originally from Bicester but now lives in Kent, said: “Dad spent the last 36 hours of his life there. They treated him absolutely brilliantly and me brilliantly too and (attending) is just a way of showing gratitude.”

He has previously helped out at the charity’s Moonlight Stroll, which sees fundraisers walk eight miles around Oxford in memory of loved ones in an effort to give back to the hospice.

Mr Strong added: “They did something for nothing for us so we did something for nothing for them.”

Another hospice supporter, Belinda Topping, attended with her two sisters – Sophie Potter and Tessa Goring – because her father Peter Munn passed away there in March 2013.

She said: “It’s powerful and emotional because everyone is here for the same reason: everyone is here because they’ve lost someone.”

Mr Munn was given just two weeks to live when he was admitted to the hospice in December 2012 but survived in the hospice’s care for another 12 weeks.

Since then his three daughters have raised thousands of pounds for the hospice and also marshalled at the Moonlight Stroll.

So many people attended on Saturday afternoon that many spilled out onto the road surrounding the hospice.

Music included in the service included the hospice’s music therapist Tom Crook singing You Are Not Alone by soul singer Mavis Staples.

The Steventon Choral Society also contributed, along with the Didcot Divas, who sung You Raise Me Up, best known as performed by Westlife, and Amazing Grace. Jubilee Brass Oxford Band also attended.