Morrisons Leigh, Christie fundraisers

The team at the Morrisons supermarket in Leigh, Greater Manchester are taking on The Christie Challenge to complete 6 fundraising activities in 12 months. They decided they wanted to support The Christie charity as one of their colleagues is currently a patient at the hospital, and many of their loved ones have been treated there as well.

One colleague Samantha Dickinson was recently supported by The Christie while her partner Leighton was a patient at the hospital. Leighton was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma in October 2020 and referred to The Christie for intensive chemotherapy.

Leighton spent most of his time at The Christie in the critical care unit due to complications from COVID and sadly passed just 3 weeks later. Samantha said that everyone involved in Leighton’s care at The Christie was amazing, and their treatment and care gave them more time together.

To come up with their activities for The Christie Challenge, the team at Morrisons Leigh got really creative. They held raffles for customers and colleagues, had a bake sale and collected money in store. 40 people wore Christie t-shirts around the store to help promote the cause, which they said definitely helped with donations.

On top of this, 2 colleagues, Diane Sommers and Jimmy Banks, ran 50K over 5 days and another 3 colleagues, Sarah Johnson, Dacey Hurst and Dan Mitchinson, ran 10K. Melanie Knowles did a sponsored silence for 7.5 hours and the team even played sponsored games in the canteen to break world records!

The team at Morrisons Leigh said they were so inspired to fundraise for The Christie as the hospital helps people who are going through some of the worst times of their lives.

“It is always difficult to come up with different ways to fundraise but the most important thing is to know your team. If you know each person's strengths then you can plan your fundraising around them. If it is something they are interested in doing, it is so much easier to fundraise.”

  - Ann-Marie Wilburn, Community Champion at Leigh Store

In total, the team raised £4,000 in-store over a 2-week period. They also secured matched funding from The Morrisons Foundation, doubling their fundraising efforts and bringing their total to £8,000 for The Christie charity.

The Christie Challenge is to complete 6 different fundraising activities over the year. Whether you want to do a sponsored run, organise a bake sale or host an online quiz night, you can get involved.

If you want to help The Christie charity keep moving in 2021, sign up for The Christie Challenge.