The Hamilton Rotary Club has donated $5,000 to the Friends of Hospice charity.

The money will support the building fund for the new Agape palliative and hospice care facility.

The donation was made possible through the fundraising efforts of longstanding Rotarian Joy Lusher.

Graeme Henderson, outgoing club president, and Jean Akol, president-elect, commended Ms Lusher for living out the Rotary creed of “service before self”.

Ms Lusher, who recently celebrated her 90th birthday, raised the funds by hosting a series of dinners at the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club.

Jane Bermingham, a representative of Friends of Hospice who accepted the cheque, spoke of the difficulty of raising funds during the Covid-19 pandemic but said the organisation would soon announce the plans for a new facility.

Ms Bermingham thanked Ms Lusher, a recipient of the Rotary International Paul Harris Fellowship, for the fundraising work she has done over the years.