Champion Round-Up | By Ged Cosgrove, group managing partner
We’re entering the summer holiday season, a period of out of office replies, juggling work with childcare, and plenty of time spent outdoors with colleagues, friends, and families. Many will feel a small shift, as offices and inboxes get a little quieter. It’s a season that, hopefully, we can all enjoy.
For many of us, summer is when we cash in on the hard work of the rest of the year, taking trips and claiming hard earnt holiday days. As I take time to reflect, I’d like to personally thank each and every one of you – clients, colleagues and more – who helped the Champion team raise more than £60,000 to mark our 50th anniversary.
In Manchester, this sum helped support Kidscan Children’s Cancer Research, a Salford-based charity working towards a world where every child diagnosed with cancer can survive and thrive. Our client Francis House also received a donation, with the children’s hospice relying on contributions to continue its work supporting the families of children and young people with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions.
The Blackpool team also made a donation to a charity they have watched deliver wonderful results in their area. Our client N-Vision, the Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Society for the Blind, is an independent charity providing care for people of all ages and means who are living with sight loss.
Streetlife, a youth work charity that provides emergency shelter and support to vulnerable and homeless young people aged 16-25, was another choice from our coastal office. The charity told us that our donation would provide home starter packs, including kettles, toasters, cutlery, crockery, pans, microwaves, quilts, and pillows, for young people ready to move on from their emergency base.
In Chester, meanwhile, our thoughtful team chose three local charities to support. Our client Claire House is a children’s hospice that helps seriously and terminally ill children, enabling them to live life to the full and supporting their families. Our donation funded a week of Butterfly support for a bereaved family, allowing them to spend time with their loved one in hospital or at home, whilst supporting them through the practicalities of bereavement, and providing emotional support.
Nightingale House supports adults with life-limiting conditions, providing specialist palliative care, and our donation went towards its annual £4million running cost. Again, our contribution specifically helped children after bereavement through the charity’s community support.
We also chose a client that we’ve seen deliver exceptional work in its field. Neuro Therapy Centre helps people with long-term neurological conditions and supports their carers to live well with their condition through tailored exercise and wellbeing programmes. Its central objective is to provide a place of care, friendship, advice and support in a positive, informal and happy environment.
Finally, the Preston office donated £1,800 to Southport Foodbank, part of the Trussell Trust. The foodbank’s CEO told us that our donation would fund advice work, enabling them to sit with people and help them access the right benefits or work on debts together, so they don’t need food support at all.
Alongside local charities, the Champion team’s efforts also helped several national charities, including Samaritans, Macmillan and Barnardo’s.
We’re lucky to work with so many wonderful charities and to have been able to support causes that mean a lot to our colleagues.
I’d like to wish all of our colleagues, clients, and our charity contacts, a lovely and fulfilling summer.
Read more on our 50th year fundraiser here: www.championgroup.co.uk/champions-golden-jubilee-60000-raised-in-charity-fundraiser/
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