FLAMECARE’S FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN IS ON FULL HEAT!

A years’ fundraising initiative by Chesterfield-based heating engineers, FlameCare, has paid huge dividends for Ashgate Hospice

FAMILY-RUN, independent and local, FlameCare certainly ticks all the boxes in terms of ‘going over and beyond’ the call of duty. In terms of local charities, the commitment is as strong and wholehearted as ever. For instance, during the past year or so, for any new customer signing up to a central heating maintenance plan, FlameCare has donated the first month’s subscription to Ashgate Hospice.

With soaring energy bills and the need to have peace of mind for boiler maintenance and servicing, there has been a surge in take-up for FlameCare’s competitively priced plans. This has been good news all round, and especially for Ashgate Hospice, who have received a grand total of £4288.83 for all the first months’ subscriptions.

“Ashgate Hospice is close to our hearts,” said FlameCare Managing Director, Simon Fletcher. “Many of our staff have experiences of family members receiving the marvellous endof-life care, which they deserve from this amazing charity. Having the privacy and space to spend precious time with loved ones at the end of their lives is so important and special. We are thrilled to contribute to this exceptional service.”

Rachel Broughton, Senior Corporate and Community Fundraiser at Ashgate Hospice, said: “We’re so grateful for the kind and generous support of FlameCare over the last year.

“As only a third of our funding is publicly funded, we rely on the goodwill and kindness of our supporters in order to provide our vital services to the North Derbyshire community.

“Without businesses like FlameCare choosing to support us, we simply wouldn’t be able to continue caring for the patients and their families who need us most.”

In addition to the subscriptions’ donations, FlameCare has also assisted Ashgate Hospice with the Treecycle initiative just after Christmas, and with leaflet distribution.

Simon is keen to point out that FlameCare’s commitment to Ashgate Hospice is on-going, and that the subscriptions’ donations from the maintenance plans will continue for the foreseeable future.

FlameCare bears all the hallmarks of a successful family business – longevity of staff, meticulous attention to detail, unrivalled personal service, and uncompromising integrity. On March 16th, they celebrate their twentieth anniversary. There has certainly been great progress since those days in 2003, when Simon and a colleague started out on their own.

Simon still remembers the first customers, who signed up for a boiler and central heating maintenance plan. It’s great testament to the value and efficiency of the plans that those first customers, Mr. and Mrs. Baxter, are still subscribing to the plans to this very day!

Over the years, the staff and maintenance plans have mushroomed greatly. There are now ten staff and over 2000 plans! Many of the staff, like Sam

Hudson and Sean Jones, have been there virtually from the start. Many others, like Kate Bower, have been employed there in excess of ten years. The staff is headed by husband-and-wife team, Simon and Vicky Fletcher, and all the rest are either family or close friends. They can, therefore, all rely on each other to achieve excellent results time and time again.

With the current spike in fuel bills, there has never been a more relevant time to get rid of an old inefficient boiler and replace it with a brand-new superefficient one. At Flame Care, they use Ideal Heating boilers, all of which achieve band A levels of efficiency. The good news is that all Ideal Heating boilers attain at least 93% ERP rating as standard and have a full range of controls to suit every possible need. Boilers start with a 7-year warranty and go up to a 12-year warranty. The current superb offer from FlameCare is that, for all new boiler installations, customers will also get a free Halo WiFi. The Ideal Halo Wi-Fi is an internet connected wireless programmable room thermostat, designed to work specifically with the Ideal Boiler. Halo Wi-Fi allows heating control anytime, anywhere through the flexible and intuitive Halo app.

APPLYING IS EASY

As a homeowner, I love nothing more than taking pride in maintaining my home, with regular DIY projects and home renovations continually keeping me busy. My enjoyment of this work led me to establish my own business in property maintenance and ultimately specialise in being a Franchisee of Deluxe Window Cleaning.

I enjoy the satisfaction of bringing the sparkle back to my customer’s homes with high quality regular and deep cleaning services for windows, doors, facias, soffits and conservatories. I am proud to be a Which Trusted Trader, with customer service at the heart of what I do. As a result, I offer the reliable, professional, and friendly service that I would expect from people working in my home.

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My office is the best in the world, working in Matlock and the surrounding areas means I spend my days working in some spectacular places with breath taking views! I love chatting to my customers and I am immensely proud when I am recommended to others. This helps me to continue to grow my business and means that even more people have Deluxe quality, clean windows in their homes.

I look forward to making you my next satisfied customer!

VISIT OUR SHOP FOR:

• A range of small bags of kiln dried logs

• Kindling • Woodwool Firelighters

• BBQ Charcoal • Smokeless Ovals • Log Baskets • Stove accessories

• Derbyshire made candles and lanterns, and other unique products

Gardener’s Calendar

Most spring bulbs will have gone over by now, but a good way to encourage them to return next year is to give them some tomato feed now.

Some species of tulips are unlikely to flower year on year, but others will, so be sure to deadhead them and even if they look messy, don’t cut back the leaves until they have died.

Don’t Mow May has become quite a thing – the aim being to leave your grass to grow so wildflowers come through and help pollinators such as bees. But if you find it a hard rule to stick to, you’ll still get daisies and clover surviving and leave your grass looking pretty tidy if you raise the height of the cutters on your mower. You can always lower them again later.

Top Tip:

There are lots of small starter tomato plants in nurseries and they are a great way of growing your own. Just remember that they don’t like sitting in loads of compost and if you try to transplant straight in large containers they may well rot. This is why you can put them in grow bags rather than proper pots - they like their roots crowded. So just keep potting on to the next size until they look well grown.

Weeds are growing like there’s no tomorrow. Pick a dry day to hoe. Drag the hoe through thoroughly and leave them on the surface to dry out and die – saves the bother of hand removing every one with a trowel.