One month since our Manchester Midnight Walk – A blog from our Trustee and Honorary Treasurer
Our Trustee and Honorary Treasurer, Allan Beardsworth, took part in the walk, and he tells us about the incredible experience he had that night and the importance of your support.
I’ve been a trustee at St Ann’s since 2015, but my belief in the importance of hospices and my love for them goes back much further than that.
My mum died in St Rocco’s Hospice in Warrington in 2002, and my wife Jane’s father passed away in St Ann’s Little Hulton in 1990. I’ve seen first-hand the importance of high quality, personalised and specialist care at the end of life, and know the value of that for not only the patient, but for their family too. In my case, the love and care given for only the very few days mum was in a hospice, will mean something very deeply important to me for my lifetime.
I’m extremely proud to be a trustee at St Ann’s. By volunteering with the hospice in this way, I feel I’m giving something back, and I love to know that decisions we make as trustees are having a direct impact on the lives of local patients.
I’m always so amazed by the number of people who choose to support St Ann’s by raising money. As a charity that only receives around a third of our funding from the NHS, we rely on kind donations to help us to raise around £16,000 a day so we can keep our three hospice sites and wide range of community services running.
From baking sales to tea parties; corporate sponsorship to generous gifts in wills; people choose to support the hospice in many different ways. Participants in our annual flagship fundraising event, the Manchester Midnight Walk have raised almost £2million for our patients, and this year I decided to take part too.
My wife Jane joined me on the walk, and from the moment we entered Manchester Central the atmosphere was amazing. It was incredible to look around at the sea of yellow t-shirts, flashing bunny ears and glowing tutus and know that everyone was raising money for the same cause. Many people choose to walk to remember someone special, and I have to say it was extremely emotive to read the messages on the back of their t-shirts and see the photos of their loved ones proudly pinned alongside. And I’ve never before worn a flashing light headset, either.
The entertainment warmed everyone up, and despite the Manchester rain, everyone set off in high spirits. We live in a great city, and seeing a thousand-strong crowd marching together past some of our most iconic landmarks made me proud. It was nice to get the occasional honks of car horns, waves, cheers and well wishes from people enjoying a Friday night out.
As both a Trustee and the Treasurer of the hospice, I know that every penny raised at events like the Manchester Midnight Walk makes a huge difference to the lives of local people. So thank you to everyone who joined us for this year’s event.
We look forward to seeing how much the walk has raised this year. If you’ve still got sponsorship money, please click here to pay it in online, drop it into one of our hospice sites, or call the team on 0161 498 3631. My huge thanks if you were one of my fellow walkers –we got soaked on the night, but quickly dried off, and I very muich hope you will join us at another St Ann’s event soon!