About the Don’t Lose Hope Charity
 

The Don’t Lose Hope charity in Bourne provide much needed mental health support through play therapy sessions & counselling sessions for children from the age of 4 years old right up to adults. They have become the charity of choice for so many within Lincolnshire because of their sheer hard work and commitment to bringing a community together. The charity is close to many of our hearts and in addition to the mental health support they provide across Lincolnshire, they also provide additional groups and services from bereavement groups to befriending services, drama and arts & craft groups to men’s only sessions in the shed. They do all this through raising funds through their three sites: Their beautifully rustic designed cafe (the site of the former National Westminster Bank) where they serve, in my opinion, the best coffee in Bourne in addition to delicious cakes and light lunches. Here you’ll also find a night light cafe on a Monday and Wednesday evening. Their gift shop, which has some lovely items for sale, from home-made candles and bath bombs, all made on site, to lovely East of India trinkets and gift cards and not to mention a whole array of lovely ‘cheer you up’ gifts with such beautiful sentiments to brighten someone’s day & promote a healthy and positive well-being. And finally, their community garden and shed which is a truly tranquil and peaceful place to be, from the moment you step inside.

The garden has so many wonderful plants to look at and you can sit and enjoy your lunch and take everything in
 

On Saturday 28th June, myself and a couple of other volunteers of the Don’t Lose Hope charity in Bourne had the pleasure of joining one of Dave & Julie’s coach tours to York. I personally have travelled with Dave once before, up to Snowdon, in Wales in April 2024, where I’d been part of a group doing a mountain trek for the charity so the trip to York was my second experience with them. I honestly cannot recommend them enough. From start to finish, I was incredibly impressed with the attention to detail. Our pickup was in Bourne, at the bus station. The coach arrived on time, and we were met with a lovely smile and a warm welcome from Julie and Dave. Our luggage was tagged and carefully stored away, and we had pre allocated seats on what was a lovely comfortable coach, with air conditioning (very much needed in the heat wave we were having!). As we began our journey to York, making several stops to collect passengers between Bourne and Lincoln, what I noticed foremost, was the lovely personal rapport and friendships that had been made between Julie and her regular clients, each were greeted with a smile and chatted like they were old friends. It was lovely to see. The journey was smooth, with Dave providing itinerary information over the comms system on the coach so everyone was well informed regarding drop off points, meeting times and collection points once we arrived in York. What impressed me the most though, was the additional historic information provided by Dave about the city of York. With my son having attended York university for three years, I thought I had known a fair bit already, but I learnt so much more, especially about the old Roman roads leading into the city. It was informative and interesting with lots of wonderful and useful tips about where to go and what to do in the city as well as a fair amount of added humour! Julie ‘the hostess with the mostest’ ensured everyone was comfortable on the journey to and from York, providing tea, coffee and refreshments from a refreshment trolley, with prices outlined on a price card in the front of everyone’s seats so there were no hidden or surprise costs and everything was very reasonably priced. A lovely extra touch I thought! The arrival at the hotel after some free time in York, went smoothly with lots of information about what there was to do close to the hotel, and details of an additional shuttle to the city of York later after everyone had refreshed and again, back to the hotel after an evening in York. The hotel itself was lovely and put on a wonderful breakfast the following morning and again, meeting times were discussed with all passengers for our departure home later that day. As lead volunteer on a Saturday and Monday at the Don’t Lose Hope Community Garden & Shed, it was particularly heart-warming to see that Dave & Julie, as huge supporters of the charity, hold a raffle on every single coach trip to raise funds for Don’t Lose Hope. To date, they have raised in excess of £5k for the charity, which is extremely impressive. This will support so many to receive the mental health support they need. I was lucky enough to win two lovely prizes - a lovely notebook and discount voucher for one of Dave’s coach tours and a beautiful Cath Kidson coaster set! All wrapped up like a present.