Employees at IT managed services provider, Esteem Systems, held Mad Hatter’s Tea Parties, charity raffles and had a masseuse to the head office where staff donated money for massages to help raise £4,250 for Help the Hospices, the leading charity supporting hospice care throughout the UK. Esteem also sent customers e-cards last Christmas instead of posting cards and donated the cost of the cards and postage to the charity fund. Every pound raised by the staff was matched by the business as part of its commitment to helping the wider community.
Stephen Ballantyne, Corporate Partnerships Manager at Help the Hospices, says, “Help the Hospices runs a wide range of services, all aimed at helping hospices provide the very best care for children and adults affected by life-limiting or terminal illness. Esteem’s support will enable us to keep running programmes such as our professional development grant scheme that supports hospice staff with their training so that they can continue to provide world class care for patients and their families.”
Help the Hospices aims to ensure that everyone at the end of life has access to the best possible care by representing and supporting its 213 hospice members in their vital work on the front line of caring for people who face the end of life. Its services include training and education programmes, practical resources for hospice staff, work to influence government policy and to support quality care and good practice, and fundraising programmes and campaigns that raise money directly for hospices.
In keeping with local connections, Help the Hospices and Esteem chose Martin House Children’s Hospice in Boston Spa to receive half of the £4,250. Located less than three miles from Esteem’s Wetherby head office, Martin House cares for children and young people with life-limiting illnesses at the purpose built hospice and provides support to their families from throughout the Yorkshire region. Stuart Andrew, Fundraising Manager at Martin House Hospice, comments, “We are absolutely delighted to receive the donation from Esteem. The money will go towards providing expert carers, who can offer critical one to one care that our children here need. Martin House relies almost entirely on donations and fundraising to raise around £3.9 million a year to provide vital care and support for so many local children and their families. It is only through the kind support of companies like Esteem that we are able to provide these services.”
Alastair Kitching, Chief Operating Officer at Esteem says, “Help the Hospices was a hugely popular choice from Esteem staff as a charity for the business to support. For the past 12 months, we have been collecting to make a difference to a national charity with a local presence. We know what an amazing job staff and volunteers at Help the Hospices and Martin House do and know that the money will really help the children and their families.” Esteem employees have an impressive fundraising track record. This donation brings the total raised to £55,000 since 2003 on behalf of Cancer Research, The British Heart Foundation, the Samantha Dickson Research Trust, World Vision and now Help the Hospices.