Member Article

Boxing clever to back Macmillan

A business which has backed its employees to trek from river deep to mountain high to raise money for charity, is boxing clever in a bid to reach its own £50,000 target.

Staff from The High Street Group of Companies, based in Newcastle, have already raised over £40,000 for cancer charities – such as Macmillan Cancer Support and St. Oswald’s Hospice.

The majority of this came from a sponsored 50 mile walk in the Grand Canyon and climb up Mount Kilimanjaro but coffers have been boosted through a series of office based events.

The company is now supporting Macmillan Cancer Support once again and is to stage a charity boxing evening in the hope of raising a further £10,000 – this time for a new initiative, The Macmillan Supportive, Palliative and End of Life Service within the North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust.

The event will take place at the Hilton Hotel, Gateshead during the evening of Thursday 13th December. There will be four professional bouts and, after the final bell, a charity auction, entertainment and dancing till late.

Fighters include Chad Ellis, Darren Reay, Jay Hughes and Kyle Redfearn who all train at the MTK gym in Gateshead, owned by High Street Group Chairman, Gary Forrest. He says: “Most of us have been affected by cancer, either personally or through a family member or friend, so we’ve been supporting cancer charities for the past three years. We hope this event will push us beyond the £50,000 mark and all the money raised will go to a new service which is doing such fantastic work in our region.”

The Macmillan Supportive, Palliative and End of Life Service is a collaboration between Macmillan and the North East Ambulance Service, which expands the work already undertaken to improve end of life services for North East patients. Although initially funded by Macmillan, the service is available for any palliative and end of life patient, not just those affected by cancer.

The innovate partnership provides paramedics and ambulance clinicians with training and education to deliver appropriate treatment within the home, aiming to reduce unnecessary admissions to hospital and enabling people the comfort of dying at home – if that is their wish.

Macmillan Nurse Facilitator Sarah Turnbull, who has worked as a Macmillan nurse within the community for nearly 10 years, is leading the new team at North East Ambulance Service. She said: “A good death doesn’t just affect the person who is at the end of their life; it has a lasting impact on their loved ones. We only have one chance to get it right. So we are very grateful for this support from The High Street Group, which will make a real difference to our patients and their families.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Paul Dobbie .