Theme: News story

St Ann’s Hospice are calling for people to sign up to next year’s event to secure their place for the biggest Tour de Manc yet and help fund the new hospice building that is so desperately needed.

The total raised from the event this year was made up of a kind donation from Tour de Manc to the hospice, and from the dedicated riders that donated through their sponsorships.

Nearly 1700 riders took part in this year’s Tour de Manc, with St Ann’s Hospice proud to have over 45 riders take on the challenging routes to raise money for their Build It Together campaign.

The campaign is raising the final £2 million that the charity needs to build a much-needed new hospice in Heald Green, Stockport. This will replace their current Victorian building which is in urgent need of replacement as there are continual and costly repairs. The current building is no longer fit for purpose and presents a real risk to the future of St Ann’s Hospice.

The charity are aiming for next year’s Tour de Manc on the 5th May to be even bigger and are encouraging riders to sign up to take on the challenge for St Ann’s.

Registration for Tour de Manc 2024 is now open, with an early bird offer running until the end of the month with an additional £5 off Tour De Manc prices when you sign up via St Ann’s Hospice.

There are four routes that riders can take on, which will be new and improved for next year’s event. These include The Mad Manc (205km), the Classic Manc (175km), The Manc Challenge (120km) and The Northern Quarter (52km).

Team St Ann’s will be bringing the party on the day with supporters cheering on at the start and finish line. There will also be a team from St Ann’s supplying well-earned refreshments at the Bolton feed station again, which the Classic Manc and Mad Manc ride past.

If you’d like to claim your early bird offer and cycle for St Ann’s Hospice in next year’s Tour de Manc visit https://www.sah.org.uk/TDM or contact the fundraising team on events@sah.org.uk.

Our Autumn Fair took place on Saturday 30^th September to raise money for our Build it Together new hospice campaign.

This was organised by our Heald Green volunteer fundraising committee on behalf of St Ann’s Hospice for the first time, with an incredible £4,600 being raised and donated.

The day was filled with family fun with stalls, games, refreshments, a bouncy castle, and even a visit from the fire brigade and police for visitors to enjoy.

The fair was officially opened by Steve Bellis, Club President of Stockport County FC, whose mother was cared for at our Heald Green hospice.

Harsha Shah is a member of the Autumn Fair committee and has been volunteering in our Fundraising Team over the last 18 months.

Dushyant Mehta is proud to have been on the Autumn Fair committee, and is very connected to the hospice, particularly after his wife Asha was cared for in Heald Green.

We’re delighted to have such an enthusiastic and capable team of volunteers supporting St Ann’s. The Heald Green committee have already started making plans for summer and winter fairs in 2024, while over in Salford, the new Little Hulton volunteer committee are gearing up for their first event: the Winter Fair takes place on Friday 25^th November and is sure to repeat the success of the Autumn Fair.

We’re looking for new volunteers to support our fundraising in the community, including collection tin volunteers, committee members and St Ann’s ambassadors. To get in touch and find out more information, email fundraising@sah.org.uk.

Thanks to the generosity of the local community, St Ann’s Hospice has raised over £750,000 towards our Build it Together appeal for a new hospice in Heald Green!

We want to be here for our community long into the future, and reaching this fantastic milestone in our appeal brings us even closer to making our new hospice a reality.

Last summer we launched the public appeal with the ambitious target of raising the final £2 million we need to future-proof hospice care for people in Greater Manchester. Our new hospice is not a ‘nice-to-have’ option; it is an absolute necessity.

We have been overjoyed by the response from local people, businesses, schools and community groups, who have really stepped up to help us reach this incredible milestone.

We recently held a new Autumn Fair at our Heald Green hospice, organised by a committee of fundraising volunteers, which managed to raise over £4,000 and brought us one step closer to our vision. But people in our community have been raising funds in lots of creative ways.

Our dedicated corporate supporters have been feeling sporty: Sellick Partnership facilitated the Manchester Professionals Football League (MPFL) five-aside tournament, raising more than £10,000 from that and their professional cricket league; and Sesame Bankhall Group (SBG) completed a 24-hour row-a-thon, covering 305,792 metres – the distance from their offices in Sale to the Isle of Arran – and raising money towards their target of £33,000 for a counselling room in our new hospice.

Manchester Central chose us as their Charity of the Year, and helped us to hold a huge discount flower sale following the Interflora Word Cup, which was held at the venue in September, raising over £1,700.

Local golf clubs have contributed too. Bramall Park Golf Club have been fundraising for St Ann’s for 20 years, and this year raised an amazing £19,500 towards a family room in the new hospice at their annual fundraiser.

People have been taking on all kinds of challenges – like Poynton residents Barry and Claire Hawker, who embarked on the 96-mile West Highland Way walk this summer, exceeding their fundraising target and raising over £1,200 by rallying friends and family to donate.

All of this incredible support makes a huge difference and brings our vision for a new purpose-built hospice closer to reality.

We recently took ownership of the land for our new hospice, next door to our current building in Heald Green, which means building work can start very soon.

In total, building the new hospice will cost around £24.5million. This will be money well spent. If we are to reach our target and raise the final £1.25 million we need, we will need the ongoing support from the community and local businesses to continue. We’re asking you to lend your support to break ground on the new St Ann’s.

If you could donate and help us to purchase a pallet of bricks, the materials to lay the foundations, or hire a skilled local workforce to build the new hospice, please click here or phone us on 0161 498 3631 today.

We’d love to see you at some of our upcoming fundraising events. We’re hosting a fabulous fashion show in partnership with John Lewis Cheadle on Thursday 12^th October. Tickets are just £15 and include a £5 John Lewis voucher and a hand massage from our Complementary Therapy team and Clarins. They can be purchased here.

If a company, school or community group you know or work for has not already decided on a charity to support in the year ahead, our Fundraising Team would be delighted to hear from you.

We’re so grateful for everything you have done so far, and can’t wait to break ground on our new hospice with your support soon. Let’s get digging!

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.