Lincolnshire Co-op staff and customers raise almost £113k to fight teenage cancer

Colleagues and customers at Lincolnshire Co-op joined forces in 2015 to bake, race, raffle and run their way to an impressive £112,890 total for the society’s Charity of the Year, Teenage Cancer Trust.

It’s money that will go towards helping young people with cancer in the trading area, as well as providing education sessions on the warning signs of cancer to local schoolchildren.

In July staff in branches all over the county and beyond swapped their normal hairstyles for outrageous wigs, raising more than £20,000 in just one day. The ‘get wiggy with it’ initiative saw them stand in solidarity with teenagers with cancer by donning wigs while raising cash for the cause.

Photo: Stuart Wilde

On average, £309 was raised for Teenage Cancer Trust every single day in 2015 thanks to the dedication of colleagues and the generosity of customers.

As well as sponsoring events and buying cakes and raffle tickets, shoppers have raised hundreds of pounds through the sale of charity air fresheners and pin badges in outlets.

Generous staff have rounded their wages down to the nearest pound and donated the leftover odd pence to the cause, raising over £1,500, while Salvation Army clothing banks in 31 food store car parks have added £12,000 to the pot.

The cheque was handed over in a jubilant ceremony at Lincolnshire Co-op’s Washingborough Food Store, where top fundraisers got together with representatives from Teenage Cancer Trust to celebrate the total.

Local teenagers Eryk Gadomski (18) from Newark and Chelsey Whittock (14) from Lincoln came along to celebrate the donation and take part in the presentation.

They benefitted from the support of Teenage Cancer Trust while undergoing treatment for cancer; Eryk was treated on a specialist ward for teenagers while Chelsey attended the Find Your Sense of Tumour conference where she met other young people in similar situations.

Corporate Account Manager for Teenage Cancer Trust Annmarie Carey worked closely on the partnership, and she said she was thrilled by the total: “The fantastic support we’ve had from Lincolnshire Co-op will enable us to support even more young people like Eryk and Chelsey in Lincolnshire and the surrounding areas. We can’t thank Lincolnshire Co-op’s staff and customers enough for their fundraising efforts.”

Lincolnshire Co-op’s Community Engagement Manager Sam Turner said: “All of the hard work that my colleagues have put in has really paid off in the fantastic sum that we’ve raised for our Charity of the Year.

“Staff vote for the charity that they’d like to see us support, and they really got into the fundraising spirit this year – without their dedication and the generosity of our customers we couldn’t have raised such a brilliant total.”