An important part of our approach to business at Ryecroft Glenton is to ensure we centre the firm as an active part of the community in which we all live and work. We are, after all, a people business, and it is important to all of us to have a positive impact on other people in the North East, and not just by providing great business advice.
As part of this, we selected a charity of the year last April, for our financial year to 31 March 2025, by holding a vote amongst our staff.
The winner and our charity of the year was the Teenage Cancer Trust North East, and we’ve been busy raising funds for them ever since. As the (financial) year has now drawn to a close, and we are gearing up to announce our charity for the following year, we wanted to look back at the ways we’ve contributed to the essential work which this amazing charity carries out, and how we have (hopefully) helped them to help more young people in our region, and their families, who are going through an unbelievably tough time.
In case you weren’t aware, The Teenage Cancer Trust’s North East branch is based at the Great North Children’s Hospital at the RVI for patients 13 to 18 years old and at the Freeman Hospital for those 18 to 24 years of age.
The Teenage Cancer Trust receives no Government funding, and they have no service level agreements with the NHS, meaning they don’t receive payment from the NHS for their work either.
The majority of their income comes from initiatives like our business fundraising, alongside funds raised from families who have used their service. The North East TCT needs approximately £780k per year to carry out their services. As you can imagine, raising this level of funds every year is dependent on an immense level of effort from all involved, and frankly, it is amazing and a testament to the generosity of the people of the North East, that charity continues to operate.
So, what have we been doing to help? Over the past year we have been fundraising by staging or participating in various events, which often involve our staff giving up their own time in order to help with the fundraising efforts.
In July 2024 a team of 7 from RG staff took part in the Great North business 10k run, raising £585.
Across the football season we’ve run a Premier League last man standing competition, which raised a total of £170.
From September through to December, alongside the most recent season of the great British bake-off, we staged the RG bake-off with each participating staff member mirroring the theme of the week in which their contestant was eliminated. This raised a fantastic £1,517.80, which was just rewards for the effort put in by all the contestants including the RG bake-off champion, Tracey McGuckin.
We also held a Christmas Festivities day to raise funds for the TCT, which involved various activities including a raffle, a Christmas Jumper competition and a Digital Christmas Card, combined all of these raised a total of £760.
Through the selfless generosity of RG’s staff, we collected Christmas gifts for current patients at the TCT wards in Newcastle, which were passed on directly to the teenage patients in hospital, by the TCT’s fundraising staff.
Our last donation, to mark the end of our year of fundraising for the TCT, involved a collection of a much sweeter variety. RG’s staff donated easter eggs to be given to the patients in the two wards to bring a small slice of normality whilst they are undergoing treatment. Due to a fantastic effort we collected and delivered 72 easter eggs to the ward staff.
When we originally set out to raise funds for the TCT, we targeted around £2,000 across the year, but we have left that total well behind, with £3,703 raised for the year. Hopefully, a helping hand for a very worthwhile cause.
