Payzone Fundraising for St Luke’s Hospice

As our 12-month charity fundraising for St Luke’s comes to end, we’re reflecting on all of the incredible things our team has achieved to help raise money.

Each year, Payzone employees write down a charity that’s important to them. All are thrown into a hat and the votes are counted. This year, it was none other than St Lukes (Cheshire) Hospice that came out on top.

Based in Winsford, St Luke’s Hospice cares for patients with cancer and other life-limiting illnesses. With curative treatments not always possible, the staff at St Luke’s work tirelessly to support up to 1000 patients a year to provide the best quality of life they can.

Several members of our team have a personal connection to this wonderful charity. Their work goes beyond standard care procedures; from end of life care on the ward to supporting their families, as well as helping children deal with grief to helping patients adjust back to normal life after an illness.

With the huge sum of £3.9 million a year it costs to run the Hospice, just 15% of this funding comes from the Government. Nearly 85% of care is funded by donations, hence the importance of local support and fundraising.

What did we do?

After deciding on the charity - we got to work!

We have to credit our ‘Social Squad’ - a committee of staff members who work on managing and promoting our community and chosen charities. After setting ourselves a target of £5,000 for patient care at St Luke’s, we developed a 12-month plan full of exciting fundraising events!

We kicked off our fundraising efforts in February with a donation bag collection, where the staff filled over 50 large bags with clothes. These items were sold at St Luke’s retail shop, raising over £1000.

St Luke's bag collection

The following month we hosted a successful Quiz Night in the Watermead pub, followed by a Race Night in May. July saw several members of our staff participating in our annual Midnight Walk across South Cheshire.

We also made sure to run various fundraising activities at the Payzone office throughout Spring and Summer. This consisted of raffles, bake sales, a Grand National Sweepstake, various ‘Name that Teddy’ and Football cards, ‘Break the Balloon’ and BINGO!

Break the Balloon game in action...

The icing on the cake, however, was The Glitter Ball. Our Social Squad organised a glamorous evening filled with dancing, delicious food and live entertainment. Hosted in the stunning Nunsmere Hall on Friday 27th September, this fun-filled evening enjoyed by over 200 guests was a complete hit.

We had an office refurbishment in October, so donated 8 of our double cabinets to St Luke’s and participated in the charity’s inaugural ‘Bring a Pound to Work Day’ campaign involving many other workplaces across the area.

Halloween fun at Payzone

We were thrilled to read the impact of our fundraising efforts from Andy Bailey, Corporate Partnerships Manager at St Luke’s Hospice:

‘It’s clear to see that when Payzone commits to something, they go for it 100%! It felt as though the whole of the workforce were backing St Luke’s through 2019. All of their fundraising events such as the Quiz Nights were very well attended and the Glitter Ball was a huge success. The Social Squad were a pleasure to work with and their thirst to champion all things ‘community and charity’ is a great reflection on the business’.

How much did we end up raising?

We’re thrilled to announce that after 12 months of charity fundraising, we have raised a HUGE £12,390.25!

We’ve smashed our target of £5000 - raising over £7300 more for this wonderful charity.

Thanks are in order!

“I would like to take a moment to recognise the brilliant efforts of our staff and thank all of those involved in raising a massive £12,390.25. Everyone came together for a fantastic cause and gave a lot back to our local community.” Commented Andrew Goddard, Managing Director at Payzone. “We’d also like to thank St Luke’s Hospice for their support and for providing us with some amazing fundraising resources.”

Stay tuned to find out which nominated charity we’ll be fundraising for in 2020!