Theme: Fundraising

Bridget Griffiths from Little Hulton was a funny, witty, and wonderful woman who lived in Manchester for 25 years.

Her book, Feck Off Ya Auld Eejit, contains tales of family, filled with humour, warmth, wit and sadness that tumbled from her distinctive Irish imagination.

Having spent her final weeks at our hospice, Bridget’s family are now selling her book to raise money for us and to share the creative stories their loved one wrote.

Having grown up in Dublin in poverty, Bridget drew from her experience as a child growing up in the tenement blocks of North Dublin which inspired her writing.

Earlier this year Bridget was diagnosed with a slowly growing lung cancer, but after a fall where she thought she’d broken her collar bone, she was diagnosed with bone cancer too and given 48 hours to live.

Bridget’s daughter, Siobhan Fogarty, and partner Richard wanted to stay by her side after her diagnosis was given in hospital. However, Siobhan says: “Mum didn’t want to die in hospital, it wasn’t the place to die peacefully, so we’re so thankful that she got a place at St Ann’s Hospice.”

“Considering how horrendous the illness and whole time was, the hospice made her death a better experience.”

Bridget died on 15th March 2023, at 88 years old, being remembered as a very young, stylish, and funny lady.

Bridget had written stories that have now been compiled into a book. At 14 years old she left school and shortly after that came to Manchester where she worked as a cleaner and did her English O level. She had always enjoyed writing but after being told she wasn’t good she didn’t pick up her pen again until she was 80 years old.

Bridget had a huge Facebook following with hundreds of writers, critics, journalists, and Irish folk praising her writing. However, she never had the confidence to compile her stories into a published book.

Siobhan says: “These fabulous stories, which met with critical acclaim on Facebook and beyond, are her legacy, providing a marvellous insight into the truly feckin’ wonderful woman she was.

“For the two weeks she was in the hospice we collated the stories together, staying at the hospice day and night with no sleep to stay with Mum and finish the book. Mum died before we could get it published.

“We hope that from the book people see a woman who educated herself from poverty to success. Of course, there is lots of Irish language and snapshots of a beautiful moving story.”

Bridget was happy that all proceeds of the book would be going to St Ann’s Hospice, as that is what the family decided as they felt so supported and cared for by hospice.

So far, Siobhan and Richard have raised over £3000 from Bridget’s tribute page and book proceeds, and they want to keep the legacy of Bridget book to continue through her book to raise money for St Ann’s Hospice.

To buy Bridget’s book in paperback for £9 or on kindle for £5 here.

After 94 years, Hobsons, a much-loved family bakery in Reddish has closed its doors. 

In 1929, founders Harry and Marion Hobson opened the shop as a general store, and later adapted the business to become a bakery. 

The bakery is now run by grandson Martin Hobson and his sister Sally, making them the third generation to run Hobson’s!

They have been supporting our hospice by displaying collection tins inside the bakery and have managed to raise an incredible £3,900 for us over the last few years, thanks to the generosity of their customers. 

We could not be more grateful for their support, which will help us to continue providing quality care for our patients and their families in Greater Manchester. 

If one thing is for sure, the little Reddish bakery will certainly be missed by the community but we would like to take this opportunity to wish Martin and Sally all the very best for the future!

My godson Adam Holland was cared for by St Ann’s Hospice at their Little Hulton site in 2020, where he died aged just 22. Adam lived within walking distance of the hospice and was diagnosed with cancer as we went into the first lockdown of the pandemic, and when no treatments were working effectively, he received end-of-life care at the hospice.

Due to the pandemic, only Adam’s mum Sam and step-dad Chris could go to visit him at the hospice, but all of Adam’s family and friends know how amazing the people at St Ann’s were for Adam.

My family and friends wanted to show their appreciation for St Ann’s Hospice, so we decided to embark on a challenge all together!

We’re so pleased to have raised over £7,000 by doing the National Three Peaks Challenge to help St Ann’s Hospice support more patients and families like they did for Adam.

I live in Stockport so had heard of St Ann’s through their Heald Green site, but never had a personal connection until Adam was cared for. After Adam died I did the Swimathon where I swam 5k and raised money for Cancer Research UK and Marie Curie, but this time wanted to raise money for St Ann’s Hospice.

My brother sowed the seed “shall we complete the National Three Peaks” my reply was simple, “as long as we do it for charity (St Ann’s Hospice) then yes”. From there we asked other family members and friends, and we had an initial eight signed up for the challenge.

We all found it very difficult, physically and mentally demanding but found singing quirky songs such as Country Road “take me home” made the trek bearable. Plus, we were glad to have decided we were going to do it across three days instead of just 24 hours!

Our original target was to raise £4000, with each of us in the group having a £500 target to reach, this changed when two of the original group could not make it – however we still wanted the £4,000 target to remain.

We asked everyone we could for donations and shared Adam’s story to raise more money. We all took on different ways to increase our donations, with my wife and brother-in-law both doing raffles at work, my mum holding a coffee morning and Tuesday Fiver appeal on the last day of the challenge.

Before we even started the challenge, we had nearly reached our £4000 target! And then it was let’s try and get as much as possible for this worthy cause…

At the start of the challenge we drove up to Fort William to walk up Ben Nevis, then drove down to Scarfell for the second peak and finally to Snowden to complete the challenge.

When we’d finished the final peak we were all very much broken at the bottom! But it was lovely to be met by Sam, Chris and other family members to welcome us home.

Since completing the challenge, through social media and other channels more funds were raised, and we couldn’t all be happier that the final total raised for St Ann’s is over £7,000.

Some of us went to the Heald Green hospice a few weeks after our challenge to meet the staff and be presented with a cheque showing the amount we’d raised.

We’re all so grateful for the support we received when Adam was being cared for. It’s only when you or someone you know needs St Ann’s that you realise how much money is required to keep it running – £20,000 a day!

The money we’ve raised will help other patients and families and every little bit really does help. My wife and I would like to start volunteering at the Heald Green site, and originally I’d said “perhaps I’ll take a break next year from physical challenges and fundraising”. But after going into the hospice and seeing first-hand the care given and the gratitude given towards our fundraising – I may just jump out of a plane at 30,000 feet next year for St Ann’s and see how much money I can raise for that!

Over the next two years, Manchester Central will embark on big fundraising initiatives for its team to get behind, supported by the hospice’s fundraising staff, with the aim of raising £10,000 during the term of the partnership.  

Every year, Manchester Central asks its 120-strong team for suggestions for a charity to support. When put to a vote, St Ann’s Hospice was chosen to be the firm’s charity partner for the next two years. More than 90% of the Manchester Central team live in Greater Manchester and the Heald Green site is their local hospice.

Fundraising for charity is threaded throughout the venue’s activity already, with several initiatives already underway. So far, Play It Green team memberships have raised over £420 for St Ann’s Hospice.  

The Build It Together campaign is raising the final £2 million that St Ann’s Hospice needs to build their new hospice. This will replace their current Victorian building which is in urgent need of replacement as it needs continual and costly repairs.  

The Build It Together campaign, which launched in June 2022, has already raised just under £610,000 and St Ann’s is urging people across Greater Manchester to get involved. 

To find out more information on how you can help St Ann’s Hospice with their Build It Together appeal, see their website here.