A former Otago Community Hospice board member says the health-based charity should never have accepted funds from a boxing event.
The charity was the recipient of $22,000 from auctions at the Southern Showdown charity boxing event on Saturday night.
Emeritus Prof Martin Ferguson said he was surprised a health charity should receive such proceeds ''when you think of the damage boxing does to people's heads''.
The former board member said he was involved in vetoing a similar charitable gesture when he was involved with the board and was disappointed to read of the hospice's latest involvement.
''It is almost as if money is the god.''
Others in the health sector held similar views, he said.
Otago Community Hospice chief executive Ginny Green said the board did ''mull it over'' but decided to become involved with this year's event.
''How our community supports us is how our community wants to support us and we can't pass judgement on how people want to raise money for their hospice.''
She said the hospice had to raise $1.6 million each year, and if that target was not met then services had to be reduced.
The hospice also continued to rely heavily on gaming proceeds, she said.
