Year of giving back supports local hospices and the air ambulance
As the Group’s year of giving back continued into quarter three of 2021, colleagues came together in our Egremont, Wigan and Scotland branches to support local causes important to them.
Mini challenges for the Great North Air Ambulance to mark their 30th year
In July Recruitment and Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) colleagues decided to take on individual mini 30 challenges to mark the air ambulance’s 30th year of operation. Some even got very creative whilst stuck in their homes isolating, including completing a 30 mile cycle on an indoor bike to drum up donations from friends and family.
Colleagues chose the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) as their local charity, because there’s not a day that goes by without someone needing the vital services the air ambulance provides across their community. GNAAS coverage spans the North East, Cumbria and North Yorkshire. In these areas it is often difficult to access rural locations, so being able to provide critical care through an air ambulance can often prove life-saving.
The air ambulance charity doesn’t receive any of the Government’s NHS funding, so they heavily rely on donations to continue to operate.
You can find out more about the great work GNAAS on their website.
Climbing the Yorkshire peaks for Wigan and Leigh Hospice
Next up in August Wigan Recruitment, Support Office and Linx colleagues took their turn to get together to raise funds for their local hospice. Some brave volunteers took on the Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge – which gave a fantastic boost to the fundraising pot as friends and family dug deep to reward their gruelling efforts.
Other activities everyone got involved with included purchasing a monthly pass to dress down in the office, baking for a cake sale and organising a charity shop donations collection bank.
Wigan and Leigh Hospice support the local community with palliative and specialist end of life care both in their hospice and at home. Based in Hindley, Wigan, the hospice relies on the support of the local community for fundraising and volunteering to help them deliver their services. You can find out more about the local hospice on their website.
Falkirk and Glasgow branches lend their support to Strathcarron Hospice
Keen to also help their local hospice, colleagues in NRL’s Scottish branches started a donation bank in their Falkirk office to collect lots of good quality second-hand items that they could take to one of the hospice’s local shops. Hospices were hit particularly hard by covid restrictions over the last 18 months – with charity shops having to close and fundraising events needing to be postponed or cancelled. For our colleagues, this made it even more important to be able to support in any way they could.
Strathcarron Hospice has provided care to local residents since they first opened their doors in 1981. Since then they have continued to work tirelessly to ensure patients receive a high quality of life in their final weeks and days, and that their families are able to most out of every moment.
Anyone interested in finding out more about the services and support Strathcarron Hospice provide can visit their website.
Our year of giving back continues over the next three months as we support Diabetes UK, Barnsley Hospice and our local foodbanks.