I have written in these pages before about St Helena Hospice and the damage done to their funding model by Rachel Reeves’ disastrous budget last year.

At the time, I also wrote to the health secretary, Wes Streeting, on the hospice’s behalf to raise my concerns – although the answer I received was not satisfactory.

Sadly, the charity, which marked its 40th anniversary this year, has announced this week that it will need to make redundancies as the funding pressures it faces have left more than half of its beds empty.

This is due in part to the changes to National Insurance brought in by Labour. It now costs them £1.1million more to pay their staff wage bills than it did before.

The hospice also faces a £200,000 bill in non-pay costs, including energy bills. Britain has some of the most expensive energy in the world, thanks to the religion of net zero, which has polluted much of Westminster.

There is one piece of good news. My friend and local farmer George Wright and colleagues are stepping forward to do their bit and raise money for the hospice.

George and a team of 10 others will be taking part in a charity bike ride from Land’s End to John O’Groats, a journey of some 1,000 miles.

The team, who all live in the Colchester area and call themselves the Wrinkled Wheels, will be setting off on September 1.

They are doing all they can to promote their charity cycle. Some of you may have seen George and crew at the St Helena Hospice stand at the Tendring Show a couple of weeks ago.

For those who have the means to help, you can visit their JustGiving page. Let’s support St Helena Hospice, whose staff and volunteers do so much to support others.