A charity set up to help raise money for healthcare in Dartmouth is disbanding because no-one is prepared to run it.

The League of Friends of Dartmouth and District Healthcare (former Dartmouth Hospital League of Friends) was formed 67 years ago by the late town mayor, Irene Scawn.

It was hugely successful in raising money to buy equipment for the town’s cottage hospital for decades, until the facility closed in 2017.

Since then the friends have supported local residents’ general health and wellbeing including donating money for physio equipment, a Doppler Machine for the district nurses and a defibrillator in the town centre. The friends also funded a vacuum for Dartmouth’s outdoor swimming pool and initial costs towards a voucher scheme for the town’s indoor pool.

But now the group has decided to call it a day after the chairwoman Carol Lingard announced her resignation at the trustees meeting earlier this month, and no-one was willing to take over the helm.

Carol, who has chaired the friends for the last 13 years, told the group her life had changed dramatically since the death of her husband.

Age was also a factor in Carol’s decision to step down, and the fact fundraising has become more and more difficult since the hospital closed, the covid pandemic swept the country and as a result of the current economic restrictions.

It was agreed the friends group should slowly disband and that its remaining pot of money should be “drip fed” to local organisations.

The Charity Commission’s latest figures for the group show it had £147,352 in the bank at the end of 2019.

Carol agreed to remain as a trustee and co-ordinate the distribution of the friend’s funds over the next few years.

She said: “Naturally we are all sad at the thought of the league coming to an end but Dartmouth survives on volunteers and getting new trustees in nigh on impossible.”

The friends group has been in existence since 1956.

If anyone would like to take up the reins they can email Carol on [email protected]

She added: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has donated so generously over many years and to the trustees who have supported me.

“We will pass over our funds gradually so more organisations will benefit.”