Marie Curie annouced as official charity partner of the Tour de France Grand Départ 2014
Press release published
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As the sun sets on this year’s Tour de France, leading end-of-life care charity Marie Curie has today (Friday) been announced as the official charity partner for the Tour de France Grand Départ 2014 in the UK. The Tour de France, the biggest annual sporting event in the world, has been brought to the UK by the tourism agency Welcome to Yorkshire. The first two stages of the Grand Départ will run through Yorkshire with stage one travelling from Leeds to Harrogate and stage two from York to Sheffield. The final stage will run from Cambridge to London, where it will finish in one of London’s most iconic locations, The Mall. This is the first time a charity has been selected to be the official partner of the Grand Départ of the Tour de France, and all the funds raised will help Marie Curie Nurses provide more free care to people with terminal illnesses in their own homes and in the charity’s nine hospices. 2014’s race begins on July 5th and 6th in Yorkshire, before heading south on July 7th where it will then move on to France. Dr Jane Collins, Chief Executive of Marie Curie, said: “We look forward to working in partnership with the Tour de France organisers, as well as the many organisations who will help bring this global sporting event to the UK and help raise vital funds which will go towards helping us provide free care to people with terminal illnesses in their own homes and in our nine hospices across the UK.” Tour de France director, Christian Prudhomme, said: Gary Verity, Chief Executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, said: If anyone would like to get involved in raising money for Marie Curie as part of the 2014 Tour de France in the UK, they should visit www.mariecurie.org.uk/tourdefrance. -ENDS- |
Contact information
Dee Marshall, Grand Départ, Yorkshire
- 0113 322 3505
- dmarshall@yorkshire.com
Andrew Denton, Grand Départ, Yorkshire
- 0113 322 3537
- adenton@yorkshire.com
Updated
Notes to editor
Tour de France
• The Tour de France is the world’s biggest annual sporting event and attracts 12 million spectators along the route in a typical year's race
• There are 4700 hours of TV coverage
• 2000 accredited journalists from around the world attend
Welcome to Yorkshire
• Welcome to Yorkshire is the official tourism agency for Yorkshire, working to grow the county’s visitor economy.
• Welcome to Yorkshire is a not-for-profit membership organisation, funded in part by local grants, sponsorship and Welcome to Yorkshire members.
• All money raised is reinvested directly back into promoting Yorkshire.
Marie Curie Cancer Care
Marie Curie Cancer Care is one of the UK’s largest charities. Employing more than 2,700 nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals, it provided care to more than 35,000 terminally ill patients in the community and in its nine hospices last year and is the largest provider of hospice beds outside the NHS.
Funding
Around 70 per cent of the charity’s income comes from the generous support of thousands of individuals, membership organisations and businesses, with the balance of our funds coming from the NHS.
Marie Curie Nurses
The charity is best known for its network of Marie Curie Nurses working in the community to provide end of life care, totally free for patients in their own homes.
Research
The charity provides core funding for three palliative care research facilities; the Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Unit at University College London, the Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute Liverpool and the Marie Curie Palliative Care Centre at the Wales Cancer Trials Unit (Cardiff University). The charity also supports palliative and end of life care research through its project grant funding streams, the Marie Curie Cancer Care Research Programme (administered by Cancer Research UK) and the Dimbleby Marie Curie Cancer Care Research Fund. Both research programmes aims to tackle the funding and knowledge gap in palliative and end-of-life care research, which in turn will benefit patients, families and carers.
The right to die in place of choice
Since 2004 Marie Curie Cancer Care has been campaigning for more patients to be able to make the choice to be cared for and die in their place of choice.