Police officers are investigating after a hospice charity reported a break-in this week, the third across its sites in recent months.
Rotherham Hospice reported that on Wednesday, two men damaged a fence to access woodland near the charity’s main site.
This followed a burglary at the charity’s donation centre on 9 July, for which a man has been charged ahead of a court hearing next week.
Rotherham Hospice also reported a theft from its Parkgate Superstore charity shop on 15 September, which police investigated and filed pending further information.
This week’s incident prompted the charity to bring forward the public launch of a £750,000 fundraising appeal for a new bereavement centre near the main hospice called Wishes House.
Its immediate priority is to raise £15,000 for security works to help protect the expanding site.
On the latest incident, a spokesperson for South Yorkshire Police said: “On Thursday (8 October) we received reports of criminal damage at the Rotherham Hospice, on Broom Road, Rotherham.
“It is reported on Wednesday 7 October two men damaged a fence to access woodland near the hospice. Enquiries are ongoing and anyone with any information is asked to contact us online or on 101.”
‘We didn’t want to launch our appeal in this way’
Speaking to Civil Society, the Rotherham Hospice’s director of income generation Debbie Coulson said the charity “didn’t want to launch our Wishes House appeal in this way”.
She said the latest incident seemed to be “opportunists who are looking to pick things up” from the hospice’s site.
Rotherham Hospice has installed CCTV, she said, which enabled the charity to record what happened.
“We knew within minutes when those intruders had come onto the site, so we’re doing everything that we can to support the staff emotionally, but also to try and prevent these things happening,” she said.
“But it’s just really sad and disappointing that they are.”
Coulson said Rotherham has an “exceptional community spirit” but the hospice’s staff and volunteers had been upset by the “minority of our community that are taking the opportunity to gain access and steal from the charity”.
So far, Rotherham Hospice has raised over £100,000 through its Wishes House appeal.
The charity recorded an income of £8.37m, including £3.8m in government donations, and expenditure of £8.32m in the year to March 2025.
