The 51st staging of the annual Monmouth Raft Race, organised by Monmouth Rotary Club, raised a total of £31,856 for charity.

The principal beneficiary of the 2016 event, which saw 99 entries including 23 alone from logistics firm DHL, was St David’s Hospice Care which received £23,892, 75% of the total raised.

The balance of the money raised through the Monmouth Raft Race, goes to other local charitable causes supported by Monmouth Rotary Club.

Monmouth Raft Race 2016 was sponsored by Basepoint, DHL, Mandarin Stone, Siltbusters, Module IT and Jolly Clothing.

Rotary President, Roger Finn, was at the head of a group from Monmouth Rotary Club and sponsors DHL, who visited St David’s Hospice Day Care Centre, Malpas, Newport, to tour the £5m in patient centre currently under construction.

Mr Finn, presenting the cheque, said: “Monmouth Rotary Club were delighted to demonstrate our continued unique bond with St David’s Hospice Care by handing over the cheque for money raised from the Monmouth Raft Race 2016 and also to have a hard hat tour of the wonderful new hospice facility in Newport conducted by the charity’s chief Executive Emma Saysell.

“Monmouth Rotary Club have been organising the Monmouth Raft Race, in its 52nd year in 2017, for the past 14 years and in that time the event has gone from strength to strength.

“We’re once more thrilled to have been able to donate such a marvellous amount of money to St David’s Hospice Care to help them to continue to provide vital hospice and related services to those with life threatening illnesses throughout our community.”

Emma Saysell, Chief Executive of St David’s Hospice Care, conducted a detailed tour of the new in patient hospice being built on land to the rear of the existing day centre in Malpas.

Emma said: “It was a pleasure to show the Monmouth Rotarians and other sponsors the fantastic new in patient centre which we’re creating here at Malpas. The continued support we get from Monmouth Rotary Club and also DHL and the sponsors, is truly amazing and important to us especially as our commitments will soon be considerably increased with the opening in 2017 of the new centre here in Malpas.”

The 2017 Monmouth Raft Race, organised by Monmouth Rotary Club, will take place on Sunday, September 3 starting from Monmouth Rowing Club and ending at Tump Farm, Whitebrook.

Entry costs £75 per raft including a commitment to raise a minimum of £100 in sponsorship.

For full details about the 2017 Monmouth Raft Race, including online or postal entries, please visit www.monmouthraftrace.com or call Monmouth Raft Race secretary, Rotarian David Forbes on 01600 712665 or Kris Broome at St David’s Hospice Care on 01633 851051.