A year’s worth of fundraising and awareness support from Sainsbury’s West Cowes has made a huge difference to the staff and patients at brainstrust, with over £1500 raised in total thanks to generous donations from customers.
It’s been an amazing 12 months for the charity after they entered Sainsbury’s West Cowes Local Charity voting process back in May 2013. For the last five years, the retailer gives customers nationwide the chance to vote for their favourite Local Charity, to be considered to receive a year’s worth of support from their nearby Sainsbury’s store.
When Brainstrust was announced as West Cowes’ new Local Charity partner for 2013/2014, Kim Jeffreys, Support Administrator for brainstrust couldn’t wait to get started.
Throughout the last 12 months, colleagues at the store held several activities to raise funds and awareness of how brainstrust supports patients and carers once diagnosed with brain cancer. These included a fancy dress themed social evening and quiz night which helped to raise the profile of brain cancer.
Despite the partnership coming to a close, it doesn’t mean that the charity will now be forgotten, as Store Manager Charlie Bird explains:
“Our colleagues have really enjoyed working with brainstrust and it’s certainly touched the hearts of many of them that before didn’t necessarily have a direct link to them. We know what an important part they play in the community and we hope the year-long partnership has helped remind our customers of the valuable service they provide locally. Thanks to the partnership, we’ll certainly now be looking into ways we can support them in the future”.
The partnership has helped to launch Little brainstrust to enable the charity to give more support to the families of children with brain cancer. Kim Jeffreys is very grateful for the admirable efforts of customers and the Sainsbury’s West Cowes team and has said:
“Working with Sainsbury’s West Cowes over the last 12 months has made such a difference to our cause. We have raised a fantastic amount which we are using towards our Brain Boxes which are sent to every patient at no cost to themselves and Sainsbury’s has enabled us to give more support to families on the island who have been affected by brain cancer, this is not a journey they have chosen to be on and we do not want people to feel lost or alone as we are always there for them. We are looking forward to working with them on future opportunities”.
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