STAFF at an insurance firm in Aberystwyth have given over £6,000 to the local hospital.

NFU Mutual agents and their staff in Aberystwyth nominated the League of Friends of Bronglais Hospital, to receive a donation of more than £6,451.

It’s from a national £2 million Agency Giving Fund launched by NFU Mutual.

In light of the national emergency, the leading rural insurer announced the £2m fund in February to help local frontline charities during 2021. This follows £1 million of support delivered by NFU Mutual’s Agency Giving Fund in 2020, which helped charities across many sectors to keep their life-changing services going through the pandemic.

To ensure these donations reach all corners of the UK and are directed where they’re needed most, NFU Mutual’s agents, with over 300 offices nationwide, have been given the chance to nominate local charities to receive a share of the fund. The funds are being distributed over 16 weeks from the end of February.

This donation has enabled League of Friends of Bronglais Hospital to replenish its general funds.

Rhys Davies, an agent at NFU Mutual in Aberystwyth, said: “Covid-19 continues to have a huge impact on everybody, including our customers and their local communities.

“League of Friends of Bronglais Hospital has been making a wonderful difference to our community during these challenging times, and we feel extremely proud to hear how our support has made an impact.”

Office manager of the NFU Mutual in Aberystwyth, Claire Richards, added: “I nominated the League of Friends as I felt that they were a local charity that is helping our community’s hospital when it has been stretched to capacity during the Covid-19 pandemic. Everyone in our agency has benefitted from the services of Bronglais either ourselves or through our families.”

Lloyd Evans, treasurer of the League of Friends of Bronglais General Hospital and Community Health Services, said: “We’re enormously thankful to the Aberystwyth agency of NFU Mutual for nominating our charity to receive £6,451.62 as a donation from the NFU Mutual Agency Giving Fund.

“The money has enabled us to double our very depleted general fund and will allow us to support new requests for funding from Bronglais General Hospital and from nurses working in the local community.

“During the pandemic we released £60,000 from our funds to support the work of the Wales Air Ambulance (£12,480), Blood Bikes Wales (£12,060), Macmillan Cancer Support (£7,980) and Mind Aberystwyth (£7,980), as well as making a donation to the Bronglais Chemotherapy Appeal Fund (£19,500).”