Penny Gluckstein becomes a Patron of North London Hospice

March 24, 2022

 

Penny Gluckstein, founder of the Mill Hill and Totteridge Support Group, which has raised over £5 million for North London Hospice, has become a Patron of the charity.

Penny’s association with North London Hospice goes back more than 30 years. In 1989 while she was working as chairman of a women’s housing association, she was approached by the Chair of Peabody Trust Housing Association, which had gifted the land that the hospice stands on in Finchley, and asked to support the building of an Inpatient Unit for North London Hospice.

“In October 1989 I held a meeting in a local church hall in Mill Hill, to which I invited representatives from many local organisations and I asked for volunteers to form a committee,” recalled Penny. “Twenty volunteers met in my home, and we set ourselves the target of raising £50,000, and the Mill Hill and Totteridge Support Group was born.”

In the years to come that original target of £50,000 reached £5 million as the group organised a myriad of events and high-profile lunches. Penny also continues to open her beautiful garden, Highwood Ash, in Mill Hill to the public to raise funds for the hospice every year.

Penny’s long association with the hospice has also involved stints as a volunteer on the Inpatient Unit, as a trustee and now as a Compassionate Neighbour, helping people facing the end of their lives in our community avoid social isolation.

Penny has enjoyed a long life of service to her London Borough of Barnet community. After many years as a volunteer with the Citizens Advice Bureau in Grahame Park, she was approached to become a magistrate, which led to 24-years on the bench. She became Barnet’s most senior magistrate in 2000, when she took on a three-year term as Chairman of the Bench. After retiring she joined Support Through Court, offering help and non-legal guidance to unrepresented people. She was also on the board of the Fan Museum in Greenwich – the world’s only museum dedicated to the history of the fan.

North London Hospice is delighted that Penny will continue to be connected to the hospice and promote its work as one of our Patrons.

“I am deeply honoured to be invited to be a Patron of North London Hospice and I expect I will still be actively involved along with my fellow Patrons,” added Penny.