LONGSTANDING supporter of St Margaret’s Hospice, Countess de Salis, is now a patron.

Lady de Salis has supported hospices since her late sister, Anne, Duchess of Norfolk, founded Help the Hospices, now Hospice UK, in 1984.

Her husband, Count Charles de Salis, was chairman of the appeal committee which raised £1.6 million in the early 1980s to build the first St Margaret’s Hospice in-patient unit in Taunton.

Over several decades, the couple have hosted operas in the gardens of Yarlington House, near Wincanton, that have raised tens of thousands of pounds for St Margaret’s and become a highlight of Somerset’s social calendar.

Most recently, last June 350 people saw a production of Verdi’s La Traviata by Pavilion Opera.

Lady de Salis hopes to host more operatic events in future and is looking forward to continuing to support St Margaret’s Hospice in her new role as a patron of the charity.

“It’s absolutely wonderful what the staff and volunteers at the hospice do, and I’m very pleased and honoured to be helping in any way I can,” she said.

“I have always felt, if you are as fortunate as I am in life, you want to give something back to people.”