Our Devon Business League Season with Hospiscare

The Cause Behind the Effort

Hospiscare is an independent local charity that has been supporting people in Devon living with life-limiting illnesses for over 40 years. They cover over 1,000 square miles of our county, including Exeter and central and East Devon. Hospiscare supports close to 2,200 people each year, during some of the hardest times possible. 20% of their funding comes from the NHS, and to be able to provide care, they need to raise around £10 million a year.

Our involvement with Hospiscare started when we signed up for the Devon Business League – Construction Cup, alongside Carysil, a karting competition at Raceworld in Exeter where every team races to raise money for the charity. The karting was the way in, but we wanted to give as much as we could, so we raised money in other ways alongside it. This year that meant our annual golf day, which went to Hospiscare for the first time, and a monthly contribution from our team.

By the time the league finished, QMS had raised an incredible £10,713 towards the fundraising pot. This brought our combined team total with Carysil to £11,160. That effort earned us top fundraiser in the Construction Cup league.

The league has now finished for the year, so this is a look back at how we got there.

Celebrating at Sandy Park

Last week we attended the Gala Awards evening at Sandy Park, alongside 420 people to celebrate the end of the league and recognise everyone who made it happen.

We also picked up an award that will stay close to our hearts: 2026 Fundraiser of the Year in the Construction Cup. The cherry on top was seeing JHB take the Fundraiser of the Year for the Devon Business League. It is a moment our industry can be genuinely proud of. Two Devon line marking companies, both stepping up for the same cause.

On the Track

We went into the four races of the competition hoping our driving would do the talking, but the leaderboard had other ideas.

Teams earn points for where they finish on track and for what they raise off it, and over the last two seasons the league has put more than £282,000 towards Hospiscare.

We finished 7^th in the Monday night league on 195 points, so it wasn’t our year for trophies on the track. What we will hold on to is the sideline. Whoever was out on track, the rest of the team was at the barrier cheering them round, lap after lap.

Fairway to Devon Golf Day

In July, Fairway to Devon went back to Dainton Park Golf Club for its eighth year. Greg Clark started it to bring people together for a good cause, and this year, for the first time, it was all for Hospiscare. Twenty teams played in the sun, and the day raised £8,317.40, the most it has ever raised.

A huge thank you to Georgia from Hospiscare. Her speech before the tee off was what stuck with everyone and I think played a big part in everyone being so generous around the course alongside all the other people on the holes. We listened as she broke down what Hospiscare does day to day. Her message was simple: the best answer to death is to live, so go out enjoy the day and know that in a few weeks time someone will feel the benefit of it.

The full story, including winners and our gold sponsors Carysil, is over in our golf day round up.

Quiet Contributions Behind the Scenes

There’s a third strand to our fundraising that never makes it into a photograph. Every month, a few of the QMS team donated 1% of their salary to Hospiscare. Working and living in Devon, giving a little back directly from our salary is just another way our team wanted to support the local community outside of the big events. It is a simple, shared effort, proving that when a team comes together with a shared goal, those regular steps really add up. And they did, over eight months, those small 1% donations added up to a total of £1,845.86.

To Everyone Who Made It Happen

This whole thing only worked because of the people behind it. A genuine thank you to everyone at QMS who showed up, cheered from the sidelines, or quietly pitched in their pay each month.

A big thank you to Carysil for racing with us on the grid and sponsoring the golf day, plus everyone else who supported the event.

We also have to give a massive nod to the Raceworld team. Pulling together all the businesses for race night seamlessly takes some doing, but they made all the events effortless for the rest of us – from the surprise track formats right through to a great wrap-up at Sandy Park.

Lastly, a special mention to Georgia and Ellie from Hospiscare, thank you for keeping us connected to the real cause and putting so much heart into supporting our fundraising.