She thought she was only presenting a cheque – but North West Vending’s charity organiser Teresa Ruskin, (pictured left above with Fundraiser Nicky Saunders), got more than she expected when she visited Willowbrook Hospice.
BY IAN REYNOLDS-YOUNG
As a rule, it’s easy for a company to decide to ‘do something for charity’. The hard part is deciding which charity should be the beneficiary: at least, that’s usually the hard part…
In the case of North West Vending, even before a poll of ‘all our colleagues’, it was always pretty clear who the ‘winner’ would be: Willowbrook Hospice. A long-time customer of North West Vending, Willowbrook is just down the road from the WISE group member’s HQ, in nearby Prescot. It cares for people in St Helens, Knowsley and the surrounding areas who are living with life-limiting diseases.
Willowbrook has ten in-patient beds. Additionally, it hosts weekly out-patient clinics and is registered for up to 50 day therapy places a week. Although approximately 95% of the patients have cancer, Willowbrook treats other life limiting diseases, such as motor neurone disease, end-stage heart failure and lung disease.
‘Our idea was to hold a weekly sweepstake, with the winner the one who correctly ‘predicts’ the National Lottery bonus ball’, Teresa said. ‘It’s rather like a modern-day football card: a proportion of the money generated goes as a cash prize to the winner; the remainder goes into the charity ‘kitty’.’
Since the Hospice opened in 1997, it has cared for over 6,000 patients and this year, it expects to receive over 850 patient referrals. No wonder it costs £5.84 a minute, just to keep the doors open. Just to stand still.
‘It puts our contribution into sharp focus’, said NWV Sales Manager Paula Bentley. ‘The £300 we raised, over the course of a year, (thanks mostly to Teresa Ruskin’s indefatigable commitment to gathering in the weekly contributions and keeping everybody enthused), only pays for fifty-one minutes and thirty-seven seconds of Willowbrook’s work…’
It’s a chastening thought: these places have to be as adept a fund raising as they are at patient care, otherwise the entire hospice system disintegrates…
Nevertheless, when Teresa and Paula dropped in at Willowbrook to present NWV’s cheque, they were greeted as though they were conquering Knights in Shining Armour.
Fundraiser Nicky Saunders had organised coffee in a meeting room adjacent to the hospice’s bright, airy reception area and she was full of apologies for ‘the mess’. There’s work going on, (there usually is around here, these days) and stray equipment has been temporarily quartered in every spare space. Including this one.
Nicky speaks with a passion and no wonder: she’s a woman with a personal, as well as professional story to tell. She lost her husband to cancer 13 years since and her father passed away at Willowbrook barely six months ago. Nobody could be better placed to vouch for the efficacy of the support that’s on offer here and nobody could be more committed to a fundraising vocation. You feel as though she’s somehow part of the very fibre of the place. ‘I understand people’s perceptions about hospices’, she told her visitors, ‘but the minute you walk through door you can sense that this is an exceptional system of care’. You can’t help but agree.
…it’s not until people are faced with the reality of life-limiting illness that they come to appreciate what the hospice provides for people when they’re at their most vulnerable
Unfortunately for Nicky and her fellow fundraisers, it’s not until people are faced with the reality of life-limiting illness that they come to appreciate what the hospice provides for people when they’re at their most vulnerable. ‘It’s hard to tell people what we do, because people don’t want to know’ Nicky said. ‘It’s really difficult, but look around: this is what we’re raising money for.’ With that, Nicky took her vending industry guests on a guided tour of the unit’s facilities, which are gathered around a stunning central atrium; creating the ambiance of a boutique hotel lobby rather than that of an austere medical facility, as you might have feared…
By the time the visit is over, Teresa is more committed than ever to ‘keeping up the good work’. The message from Nicky was sealed with a cuddle for the camera, but had been loud and clear beforehand: ‘well done, and thanks!’
‘I think that the Jam Jar Army idea Nicky talked about will go down well back at work’, Teresa said.
No, I’m not sure what she means, either. Stay tuned…
* Read NWV’s own take on this story of the News pages of the NWV web site, here.
** PV loves stories like this. If you’re working with a local charity, let us know and we’ll do our best to help.
