It is with a deep regret that today, 6 th March 2024, I have commenced legal action against St. Richard’s Hospice. I have been a supporter and fundraiser for St. Richard’s Hospice for over 20 years. In January 2021, their Director of Fundraising agreed that I could use St. Richard’s Hospice as a real-life location for a deathbed reveal in my forthcoming novel, Lance Dune House. In return, I would donate 50% of the profit from each copy to St. Richard’s Hospice. Immediately I supplied St. Richard’s Hospice with two printed copies of the full draft manuscript. They would be able to see how tenderly the action in St. Richard’s Hospice was treated, and also read more about the gritty themes in the book that I had pointed out to them at the outset. These included rape, drug use and murder. I wanted St. Richard’s to sell the book in their Hospice Shops, hold a book launch and more. But they quickly replied to say that these weren’t possible. They would, however, promote my book on social media and in their monthly e-Newsletter. In March 2021, I updated the Director of Fundraising with more information, including the fact that as my novel ends with a murder hidden amongst the chaos of Covid19, that I was going to market my book as the world’s first Covid19 Murder Mystery. [Someone in the USA beat me to that, so I had to settle for being the UK’s First.] Two months later, in May 2021, I received a Commercial Partnership Agreement from St. Richard’s Hospice, in which it was stated that: “Our goal is to work together for mutual benefit. Benefits for the hospice may include fundraising, publicity, provision of services and supplies. Benefits for Duncan Peberdy may include positive PR, increased sales and productivity.” Based on the Director of Fundraising telling me how they would promote my novel, backed up by the clearly stated intentions in their Commercial Partnership Agreement with me, I decided to increase my original order of books from 1,000 to 3,000 copies. St. Richard’s Hospice was going to promote my book which had a direct connection [deathbed scene and more] to the hospice itself, and, as I had pointed out [plus they had two copies of the manuscript five months prior to publication] the novel’s action is set in many parks, restaurants, cafes, pubs, garden centres, shops, etc., in villages and towns across Worcestershire. All the places where the tens of thousands of subscribers to the monthly Hospice e-Newsletter live. Right from the outset, this website stated that my aim was to raise £10,000 for St. Richard’s Hospice. That would equate to sales of over 5,000 copies that I was confident of achieving with the help St. Richard’s themselves offered to provide. After my novel was published in late June 2021 what did St. Richard’s Hospice do to promote my novel. Did they make any social media posts? Did they feature it in their monthly e- Newsletter? No. They did nothing. In September 2021, a chance meeting with the Hospice Chaplain, the Rev. Canon Clare Griffiths, confirmed that St. Richard’s Hospice hadn’t even told their own staff about it. Rev. Clare sent me an email saying that she would find out why there had been no promotion of my novel, but she never did, despite me writing to her several times. When I complained to St. Richard’s, they did then place a tiny insert in the next e-Newsletter. It simply stated: “Thank you to Droitwich author, Duncan Peberdy, who is donating 50% of the profit from his latest novel, Lance Dune House, to St. Richard’s. You can order a copy or find out where to buy one locally at www.thecovid19murders.com” I had sent St. Richard’s some text and images for this article. Text that pointed out the links to the hospice and the connection with dozens of communities across Worcestershire. Why would a professional fundraiser with the assistance of a professional communications manager not refer to the very things that would have been fundraising gold? The sentence about my book, which could have been about anything, was the only article in that e-Newsletter not to have an image and extended explanation. Why? You will have to draw your own conclusions, but my conclusion is that St. Richard’s did not now want to promote the association with my book to the hospice, despite all the confirmation prior to publication that they would do so. The consequences of St. Richard’s Hospice not promoting my book as they had promised, is that I now had copies that should have been sold sitting in my garage. It is perfectly reasonable for St. Richard’s Hospice to change its mind about fundraising ventures. But where it has explicitly given an undertaken to provide support, backed up by a legal Commercial Partnership Agreement, it must then take responsibility for those actions. In placing my order for additional books, I had relied on St. Richard’s Hospice to carry out the actions it had promised to do. In law, this is called Detrimental Reliance as it was reasonable expectation for St. Richard’s to uphold its stated commitments under the Commercial Partnership Agreement. I have made St. Richard’s Hospice aware of the many negative effects that have transpired for me as a result of the investment in books that they then decided not to support me with the promotion of. To have put a proper notice about my book and the links to St. Richard’s and the local communities in Worcestershire would have taken no more than 10 minutes work. I had sent content and images to the Hospice for this. When, in November 2022, I asked the outgoing CEO June Patel to now carry out the promotion that had been explicitly promised prior to publication, not only did she refuse, she instructed solicitors to write to me and ask me to cease communicating with St. Richard’s Hospice. Why would a charity spend money on legal representation instead of promoting a novel that they had already agreed to do, fully confirmed in a Commercial Partnership Agreement to do so? In January 2023, I wrote to the incoming CEO, Mr Mike Wilkerson, and, pointing out the correspondence between myself and St. Richard’s Hospice, asked him to take a fresh look. He too refused to promote my novel. Nobody at St. Richard’s Hospice would tell me, and still will not tell me, why they changed their minds about supporting me and my novel to raise funds for St. Richard’s Hospice. As I said, they are entitled to change their mind, but where that has a detrimental effect on what they had previously agreed to, then they must take responsibility to make good any losses. I have invoiced St. Richard’s Hospice for the cost of the additional printed copies that their promises should have sold. They have refused to pay. This is not to make any profit for me, this is to cover my out-of-pocket costs that have resulted from their change of mind to support me. In addition to the Senior Leadership Team, St. Richard’s Hospice has a number of Trustees and Patrons. I have written to many of these to raise my concerns about the way that St. Richard’s Hospice has treated me. Not a single person has had the common decency to reply to my letters: These Trustees are: Hannah Edwards, written to on 1 st February 2024 and 25 th February 2024 Helen Serrano, written to on 25 th February 2024 Janet Matthews, written to on 25 th February 2024 Andrea Palmer, written to on 25 th February 2024 Jenny Cowpe, written to on January 12 th 2024, December 14 th 2023, Professor Richard Lewis, written to on 24 th August 2023, 14 th December 2023 Galen Bartholomew, 12 th December 2022, 14 th December 2023 Peter Flagg, 12 th December 2022, 14 th December 2023 Anthony Glossop, 12 th December 2022, 14 th December 2023 Details of all the Trustees can be found here: https://www.strichards.org.uk/trustees/ In addition to these Trustees, I have also written twice to the Bishop of Worcester, the Right Rev. Dr. John Inge, as he is a patron of St. Richard’s Hospice. https://www.strichards.org.uk/patrons/the-right-reverend-dr- john-inge-bishop-of-worcester/ Likewise, he will not reply to me. When I reached out to the Rev. Canon Clare Griffiths at the start of this year, asking her again to inform me of the reason she was told that St. Richard’s would not promote my book, instead of providing the truth, she replied on the 19 th of January 2024 with an email stating: “I do not wish to reply or be embroiled in this dispute, therefore I request that any further communication is sent to the Hospice’s legal representatives.” Aside from the CEO, the only person to have replied to my concerns is my local MP, Nigel Huddlestone, who suggested, that as this is a civil law matter regarding a legal Commercial Partnership Agreement, that I initiate a claim using the online small claims court. This I have done today. Earlier this week, the CEO of St. Richard’s Hospice, Mr Mike Wilkerson, made an offer to pay 50% of my out-of-pocket expenses, on the conditions that I do not contact any one at St. Richard’s Hospice moving forwards, nor do I make any defamatory or disparaging remarks about St. Richard’s Hospice at any time in the future. Since September 2021, I have given St. Richard’s Hospice many opportunities to tell me the reason why they changed their mind to work with me, in return for a written assurance that I would not seek ANY costs or damages against the Hospice or any individual. They still refuse to do so, even though that would not have cost St. Richard’s Hospice any money. As I said at the beginning, I have been a supporter and fundraiser for St. Richard’s for over 20 years. They do incredible work for those facing the final days of their lives. For this project, I believe that if they hadn’t changed their mind, working together could have achieved at least £10,000 in fundraising. But whilst they are a great charity, this does not, in my opinion, make it exempt from being accountable and acting responsibly. Even a charity has those legal obligations, and the Directors and Trustees also have a legal obligation to ensure their obligations are being met. Duncan Peberdy 6th March 2024