What a difference a decade can make? In 2008, the top movie of the year was The Dark Knight and Twitter claimed six million regular users. Lewis Hamilton won his first Formula 1 World Championship, and Barack Obama was elected President of the United States.
In February 2008 Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks announced a new fundraising partnership with Hospice UK. A decade on, over £6 million has been raised by Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank employees and customers with 124 local hospices directly benefitting over the last 10 years. But the Banks’ employees have raised more than just money. Hospices have benefitted from over 40,000 volunteer hours generated by the partnership, and lasting links have been forged between local hospices and bank branches. There have been fundraising events in branches and offices and employees have also put in the miles with almost 400 completing three separate marathon hikes, 60 scaling Ben Nevis and 29 cycling from Workington to Whitby in 2013.
In 2017 an auction of new Clydesdale Bank £10 notes featuring Robert Burns raised £50,000. In total, the partnership has generated £6 million to date, split between local hospices and umbrella body Hospice UK.
Activities by Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank employees include:
· Peter Brooke from the Birmingham Customer Banking Centre, who has completed a tandem skydive, a trek up Snowdon and the Mudnificent 7 run, raising about £6,000 in total.
· Susan Law, a mortgage advisor from Glasgow, who did the 25 mile Kilt Walk from Glasgow to Loch Lomond in memory of a friend.
· Joanne Dixon from the Customer Banking Centre in Lancaster, who has become a volunteer at her local hospice, helping organise fundraising events from golf days to selling ice creams. She ran table games at a charity ball for St John’s Hospice with three colleagues, raising over £3,500 out of a total of £16,396 raised on the night.
· Liz Jamieson, an IT Manager in Clydebank, who has been organising seasonal hamper sales to raise money for children’s hospices in Scotland. Staff donate items for the hampers, which are then raffled off to raise money for CHAS.
The money raised by employees is matched by the company, with 50% of the additional funds going to the local hospice and the other 50% going to Hospice UK. So if a branch raises £100 for a local hospice, the hospice will receive £150 in total, while Hospice UK receives £50.
David Duffy, CEO of Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks, said:
“I am delighted that together with Hospice UK we have reached such an incredible milestone raising over £6 million for such a vital cause. I am especially proud of the thousands of hours of volunteering our employees have given to hospices up and down the country. That in itself is a wonderful achievement.”
Tracey Bleakley, CEO of Hospice UK, said “We are so grateful for this partnership with Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks and all that it has achieved. People have given money, time and effort, but most of all they have used their passion and energy to show what can be done locally and nationally to help others. The world has changed a lot in 10 years, but thanks to this support for hospices from Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks, for many people the care they received at the end of their lives has been transformed.”
