An old people’s home that has been running for more than 130 years has launched a campaign to raise £400,000.
St John’s Home in St Mary’s Road, East Oxford, needs the money to make much needed improvements to its central heating system.
The home, which shares its grounds with children’s hospice Helen and Douglas House, now plans to launch its fundraising campaign with a Christmas Fair this Saturday.
Organiser Cecily Kirtland said: “Since it was opened more than a century ago, St John’s has been a home to hundreds of elderly, frail and poor people from Oxford and around the country.
“Over the years there has been various projects carried out to update the building, getting fire doors installed or buying special equipment.
“But this is by far the biggest project and we have undertaken.
“We currently have 38 people living in the home. People are coming into residential care at a much later stage in life these days, when they are much more dependent.
“Not having an effective heating system puts a strain on staff and residents and makes it hard to operate.”
Mrs Kirtland said the Christmas Fair would be taking place between 2.30pm and 4pm in the home and hoped local residents would come out and show their support. She said: “We have been a big part of this community for a long time and it would be great to get some support.
“We will have between 10 and 15 stalls, selling Christmas cards, cakes, books and various Christmas gifts.”
The foundation stone for the home was laid in May, 1873, by Queen Victoria’s son Prince Leopold, who was studying at Christ Church at the time.
The All Saints Sisters of the Poor were called upon to run the home, which was followed in 1982 with the world’s first children’s hospice, Helen and Douglas House.
Mrs Kirtland said the cost of making the improvements was so high because the building is Grade II listed and any improvements have to be in keeping with the building.
She added: “As it’s a four-storey building it means there is a lot of work that needs to be done.
“It is an awful lot of money that we need to raise, so we haven’t set a specific time limit on when we need to raise it by.
“If we have to we will break the work up into more manageable bites.”
Entrance to the Christmas Fair, will cost £1 and all money raised will go towards its target of £400,000.
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