£112,890 to fight teenage cancer

Colleagues and customers joined forces in 2015 to bake, race, raffle and run their way to an impressive £112,890 total for our Charity of the Year, Teenage Cancer Trust.

It’s money that will go towards helping young people with cancer in the trading area, as well as providing education sessions on the warning signs of cancer to local schoolchildren.

In July staff in branches all over the county and beyond swapped their normal hairstyles for outrageous wigs, raising more than £20,000 in just one day while standing in solidarity with teenagers with cancer.

As well as sponsoring events and buying cakes and raffle tickets, shoppers have raised hundreds of pounds through the sale of charity air fresheners and pin badges in outlets.

Generous staff have rounded their wages down to the nearest pound and donated the leftover odd pence to the cause, raising over £1,500, while Salvation Army clothing banks in 31 food store car parks added £12,000 to the pot.

The cheque was handed over in a ceremony at Lincolnshire Co-op’s Washingborough Food Store, where top fundraisers got together with representatives from Teenage Cancer Trust to celebrate the total.

Corporate Account Manager for Teenage Cancer Trust Annmarie Carey worked closely on the partnership, and she said she was thrilled by the total: “The fantastic support we’ve had from Lincolnshire Co-op will enable us to support even more young people in Lincolnshire and the surrounding areas. We can’t thank Lincolnshire Co-op’s staff and customers enough for their fundraising efforts.”

Lincolnshire Co-op’s Community Engagement Manager Sam Turner said: “All of the hard work that my colleagues have put in has really paid off in the fantastic sum that we’ve raised for our Charity of the Year.

“Staff vote for the charity that they’d like to see us support, and they really got into the fundraising spirit this year – without their dedication and the generosity of our customers we couldn’t have raised such a brilliant total.