Rosie Wren’s job as events manager at Saint Francis Hospice has proved to be very different from what she was expecting

I joined Saint Francis Hospice in January as the events manager so when the coronavirus pandemic hit the UK I had only been in my role for a matter of around eight weeks before everything changed.

Now on week 16 of working from home my role within the charity has changed completely.

Instead of organising events where hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of people can get together to raise vital funds for the hospice I am now exploring the world of virtual events and trying to find new, and innovative ways, of fundraising.

Our first live virtual event is now scheduled for Friday, August 28 and will be a quiz night hosted by snooker legend Steve Davis and Phoenix Radio DJ, Ian Leigh.

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Our Big Orange Virtual Quiz promises four fun-filled quiz rounds to keep everyone entertained. As this is the first virtual event that I have organised I am so excited to see how well it is received and am looking forward to finding ways of how to bring virtual events into the Saint Francis Hospice events calendar for future years.

I hope that this could open up a whole new type of event for people to enjoy in the future, and beyond Covid-19.

Our events work as a whole has undoubtedly become quieter and as we have now cancelled so many of our physical events our income has been hard hit.

Therefore the time that I would have been spent organising these cancelled events is now being spent applying for grants from charitable trusts and foundations.

Fortunately I have experience with this type of fundraising from a previous role and as many charitable trusts and foundations have released emergency funding opportunities to support charities through the Covid-19 crisis.

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I very much miss being in the office and seeing my colleagues and I miss the excitement that surrounds events but I am pleased to be able to do my part in bringing in income to help the hospice stay afloat.

Support from the local community has been wonderful but unfortunately our income is still set to be substantially reduced this year so I urge anyone thinking of fundraising to please do so; we need your support now more than ever.

If you wish to join us for our first ever Big Orange Virtual Quiz please book via www.sfh.org.uk/quiz