Donate

We’d be very grateful for any donation you can give us. The easiest way to give is to click/tap the red Donate button. This uses a secure link to our fundraising page with CAF – the Charities Aid Foundation. CAF Donate accepts all major debit/credit cards and Paypal. If you’re a UK taxpayer, you can Gift Aid your donation and increase your gift at no cost to you. You’ll receive a confirming email for your donation.

What is Gift Aid? Gift aid enables us to claim an extra 25p for every £1 you donate. That’s as long as you’ve paid the basic rate of UK tax and make the donation from your own funds. That means Gift Aid can increase the value of your donations by 25%, so you can give even more to Mere Link Scheme.

Costs and support

It costs about £25,000 a year to operate the Mere & District Link Scheme. The biggest cost is for reimbursing our volunteer drivers for the petrol and wear and tear of their own vehicles used on each trip. Other costs are for telephone charges, insurances and office supplies.

We’re grateful for the annual Mere Literary Festival that gives us a share of its proceeds. Mere and Silton surgeries contribute to the cost of doing the weekly “dosette runs”, delivering prescriptions to outlying villages. We also receive some financial support from Mere Town Council and the parish councils of Bourton, Kilmington, Maiden Bradley, Silton, West Knoyle and Zeals.

This month we acknowledge with gratitude a wonderful financial gift from the family of Marjorie Antell, who was well known to the Link drivers – a collection taken at her funeral will enable us to continue to provide lifts to and from local hospitals for some time to come – a huge thank you to Jonathan and Susan Crowther for arranging this.