Awards cash will go towards Build It Together campaign

I WAS delighted to go to this year’s Pro Manchester’s Made in Manchester Awards recently, bringing together the best of the city to celebrate their success.

As future-pro Chair, it was brilliant to announce that the money raised throughout the night from the raffle would be going towards St Ann’s Hospice’s Build It Together campaign.

An amazing £5,795.99 was raised on the night, which will all go towards building a new hospice in Heald Green that is vital for the patients and loved ones at St Ann’s Hospice.

I was honoured to select our charity partner which came naturally to me following a personal experience I had with St Ann’s Hospice back in 2018.

This time six years ago, my auntie was diagnosed with an incredibly rare cancer where she had no hope of survival from the beginning.

St Ann’s Hospice provided both respite and end-of-life care for her in the last six weeks of her life where they showed her love, compassion and dignity until the end.

The current hospice site in Heald Green is an unfit for purpose building, however one that they manage to do incredible things in which is improved by the inspirational people who work there.

They turned what should have been a dark time in my family’s lives to something which I look back on as happy memories.

This story represents thousands of individuals in hospices across the UK right now and to those of you who may have had experience with hospices before will know what a haven they really are.

However, you probably have no idea how little funding they really get, only receiving 1/3 of funding from the NHS and needing to raise an additional £20,000 every day to keep the doors open.

I attended the Spade in the Ground event at St Ann’s Hospice last year which commemorated the start of the building works that this project has been working towards.

Liz Greenwood, Capital Partnerships Fundraiser at St Ann’s Hospice, says: “I had a wonderful evening at the Made in Manchester Awards celebrating everyone who was nominated and recognising the work they’ve done.

“It was lovely to see so much support being given to St Ann’s as we work together to raise £2m for the hospice we are in such desperate need for.

“Thanks to Nick and Pro-Manchester for all the support you’ve given us, we’re so grateful to have you as a friend of St Ann’s.”

For more information on how you could support the Build It Together campaign, please visit https://newhospice.sah. org.uk/