About Us
At the Edward Hain Centre (EHC) we believe that accessible and affordable health care is a necessity for everyone. With a holistic approach, we aim to bring you traditional medical and clinical services as well as a wide choice of preventive care to enhance over-all health and wellbeing.
We are also a community hub, offering a variety of community activities and events. The St. Ives Food Bank has its home here, too. We share a number of events with them.
How we are funded
We are funded by renting space our providers, workshops and community groups, generous donors, and grants. To find out more about our grant funders, scroll down to ‘Our Funding Supporters’ and click on any of their logos.
We also receive invaluable support from the FRIENDS OF THE EDWARD HAIN CENTRE. Previously known as the League of Friends of the Edward Hain Memorial Hospital, their fundraising made the building purchase possible. For more about them and their events, click ‘Friends of EHC’ at the top of the page, or between the arrows HERE
Room Rentals
Our business hours are Monday to Friday, 9-5.
Rooms are available for the use of service providers during those hours, and in addition, from Monday – Thursday, up till 7pm.
For more info, please see the header OUR SPACES TO RENT or click between the arrows HERE

Who we are
The Edward Hain Centre is a registered charity, number 1200936.
Our team consists of a manager, a board of trustees, and many supporters and volunteers.

Sharron Goldingay
Manager
Born in the Midlands, Sharron moved to Penzance in 1997 and has been a ‘local’ ever since. She joins us from Penzance Council, where she worked as their Corporate Service Manager. With her background in management and Procurement, as well as having run a COVID testing centre during the pandemic, her experience brings a fresh, vital approach to our team.
Sharron has two grown sons and a teenage daughter. She is also a keen gardener with an allotment in Gulval, and has a soft spot for donkeys.

Kerrie Cox
Administrator
Kerrie has lived in St. Ives for 20 years, having moved from Birmingham in 2004. She brings the Centre more than 25 years’ experience in administration and office duties. Working alongside our manager, Sharron, she is responsible for the day-to-day running and administration of the EHC. Her presence marks a step forward for us, being our second employee.
Kerrie likes pottering around the garden, reading and socialising, and loves to creatively fix things. She also has a great love for animals, and after growing up with various pets, now has 3 ducks, guinea pigs, a tortoise, and 2 dogs (soon to be 3!)

Laura Evans
Community Hub Officer & Volunteer Co-ordinator
Born and raised in St Ives, Laura is passionate about the local community and using her skills to help shape the future of the Edward Hain Centre. With a background ranging from corporate NHS to hospitality management, she brings a unique fusion of skills to the Centre’s newest role.
In her spare time, Laura loves being outdoors and can often be found in the sea or hiking the south west coast path. She’s also a keen crocheter but needs to learn to finish one project before starting another…

Lynne Issacs
Chair of Trustees
Lynne brings decades of invaluable experience in social work to the centre. Mayoress of St Ives for 2 years when her husband was Mayor, she has been involved in community campaigns for many years, including those to prevent previous attempts to close the Edward Hain Hospital.
As Secretary of the Edward Hain Friends since 2014, Lynne took part in a long series of consultations about the building’s future. She is a major force in steering its transformation into the new Edward Hain Centre for Health and Wellbeing.

Elizabeth Veal
Trustee - treasurer
Elizabeth Veal has been a member of the Edward Hain League of Friends for over 40 years. A very active chapel member, with roles including safeguarding, she is also a committee member of the Old Cornwall Society and a volunteer at the British Heart Foundation and the St Ives Museum.

Claire Young
Trustee
As a former District Nurse, and a Registered Nurse at the Edward Hain Community Hospital from 2008 to 2012, Claire’s experience working within the NHS is a great asset to our new centre. She has been involved in the former hospital’s Friends group since 2017, and an active fundraiser and campaigner for the project. She is excited about the benefits that the new centre will bring to the community.
With three grown children, Claire also sings regularly with folk and shanty groups around town.

Kit Grindstaff
Trustee/social media
A former singer and songwriter, now children’s book writer, Kit (née Hain) is our resident wordsmith and social media manager. The youngest great-niece of Capt. Edward Hain, she has been involved since 2016 in efforts to save the memorial to her great-uncle.
Throughout 2022, Kit helped publicise the Friends’ fundraising events that contributed to the building’s purchase. She is proud to follow in the footsteps of her grandmother, Capt. Edward’s sister, who was an original trustee of the former hospital.

Alan Bennetts
Trustee
Alan was born and grew up in St. Ives, and moved to London in 1977 where he obtained an LLB in law at King’s College University. With 40 years in the profession, he spent the last 25 years at the City of London Corporation, latterly as head of commercial property in the legal department. He brings the team his considerable experience in real estate law.
Recently retired, Alan plans to divide his time between London and St. Ives with his new rescue dog, Arthur, who enjoys walks and is not above being bribed with cheese.

Helen O’Riordan
Trustee
Helen is a Chartered Surveyor, being a qualified member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. She specialises in the rural property sector and brings the board a background in valuation, planning and development, landlord and tenant relationships and property management. Helen has particular expertise valuing premium rural property assets and investment portfolios.
Helen is a great grand-niece of Capt. Edward Hain and has been familiar with her family story from a young age. With frequent childhood visits to St. Ives, she feels a fond pull to the town and looks forward to supporting the community as a Trustee of the Centre.
What we do
In order to provide our community with a wide range of health services, we work with a number of different providers, groups and organizations.
These are a mixture of traditional service providers of medical and clinical sessions, and independent providers. Between them, they offer broad-based care and preventive programs to improve over-all health and wellbeing.
Please explore our site to see all of our offerings. Under ‘Latest News’ you will also find a number of blogs and articles dating back to our opening in September, 2023.
We look forward to you and your family members joining us at the Edward Hain Centre.

In the know
Keep up with what’s new at the centre, and with our Friends’ fundraising events, by signing up to our Newsletter.
We respect your privacy.

The history of the Edward Hain Hospital Building
The Edward Hain Memorial Cottage Hospital in St Ives was founded in 1920, following the purchase of Albany House with funds from the Hain Steamship Company.
Its purpose was to create a lasting memorial to Captain Edward Hain, the only son of Sir Edward and Lady Catherine Hain, who was tragically killed at Gallipoli in 1915. His parents felt that a hospital, which was sorely needed in the town, would be a fitting tribute to him.
The hospital was always strongly supported by the local community from the very beginning, as well as after it was taken over by the newly-formed National Health Service in 1948. In the 1960s the hospital’s League of Friends was formed, and have been unfailing fundraisers ever since.
Now renamed Friends of the Edward Hain Centre, you can read more about them HERE.
Following the closure of the hospital in 2020, the Friends faced a decision: either wind the charity up, or continue their long-standing mission of supporting local community healthcare. With the loss of the St Ives Day Centre as well as the hospital, health and social care provision in the town had become considerably worse than it was twenty years ago.
So the decision was made: to attempt to buy the building that had been such a beacon of local care for the past 100 years, and bring much-needed services back to the town by creating a new health, wellbeing and community hub, to be named the Edward Hain Centre.
18 months of talks and negotiations followed, with St. Ives Town Council mediating between the Friends and NHS Property Services. The Friends’ funds, raised over many years, fell short of the £1 million purchase price — but the charity was not set up to take out any loans, or to own property. A new charity, the Edward Hain Centre charity, was formed from several of the Friends members to own and run the Centre. They took out a £400,000 mortgage to cover the difference.
Finally, in late July 2023, the purchase was complete, and the building was returned to community use. The new Edward Hain Centre for Health & Wellbeing was born. Its first services were in November, 2023.


Several members of the extended Hain family have been involved in the proceedings since the wards’ closure in 2016. In a joint statement made in 2022, they said,
‘This building not only commemorates our great-uncle, Captain Edward ‘Teddy’ Hain, but is also a poignant memorial to all the lost sons of St Ives from the First World War. Our great-grandfather gave so much back to the town he loved, but this particular legacy represents the heart and soul of its people and embodies their unshakable sense of community.’
Two Hain descendants currently serve on the Centre’s Board of Trustees: Captain Edward’s youngest great-niece, Kit Grindstaff (née Hain); and great-great niece Helen O’Riordan.