We paid a visit to Weston Park Cancer Charity – our chosen charity for 2024

At the end of 2023, we asked our team to put forward their suggestions for who our employees’ charity of the year should be for 2024. There were several suggestions, but Weston Park Cancer Charity received the most votes.

The charity provides care and support for people affected by cancer, during and after treatment, through their information, support centre and outreach work.

As Sheffield Mutual’s chosen charity for the year, we were delighted to donate £2,500. Laura and Becca had the opportunity to visit the charity and hear about how the donation will be utilised.

We met up with Steve Timmins, Business Development Manager and Faye Mcdool, Service Manager at Weston Park’s ‘Big Purple Bus’ - a campaign which is set to provide support and advice for more than 3,000 people and their families across the region.

The campaign was put into motion when Macmillan Cancer Support were looking at selling their buses post-Covid.

Faye said:

“As soon as we found out that Macmillan Cancer Support were selling their bus, we purchased it immediately. The only thing we had to do was paint the bus from green to purple!”

The Big Purple Bus campaign went live in September 2023 and the main aim is to bring their services directly into the community for the first time ever. This crucial step will help to ensure that people across our region have equal access to cancer support services.

Faye continued:

“We'll be bringing our advisers into local communities, making it easier than ever for people to access support. Our new bus means we will have a physical presence within the community which will mean an increase in awareness for minority communities who have significantly higher rates of cancer and are less likely to seek our support.”

The bus will also give people the opportunity to ‘drop-in’ or make an appointment if they would like to discuss any symptoms they are worried about or find out more information on the signs they should be looking out for.

Steve said:

“Thank you for your donation, it will be used for the day-to-day running of the bus, as well as helping fund any new projects we have in the future.”