At the heart of the community

We're always looking for new and exciting ways to get involved in the community and to raise much needed funds for charities all over the country.

As well as having customers all over the UK, our customers are the businesses that share our building, the bank next door, the cafe across the road, and the school in the next street, and that's why our team live and breathe our local community. 

We realise that our community is very close to the heart of our team so we created our Community Involvement Scheme. This allows every member of the team one day a year to volunteer for a charity or organisation of their choosing. It's a great opportunity for the team to be able to give back to a community who work tirelessly to provide much needed support to countless individuals.

We spoke to customer relations manager Gemma Tripp about her amazing work with Age UK.

"I volunteer with Age UK as part of their Befriending service. This service is in place to combat loneliness, a massive issue for people in later life and something that can be harmful to their health. As a befriender, I visit an older person in their home once a week for a chat.

I've been visiting a person in the community since the start of the year and it's going really well. He is over 90 years old and tells stories of local history and gossip from years gone by.

"Previously, giving up time each week as well as leave for training or charity events would have put me off. The Community Involvement Scheme has given me the opportunity to start volunteering as I don't have to use my annual leave for the induction training."

Special events

There are many events throughout the year that the team love to get involved with such as the annual Easter egg collection for the Wallace and Gromit Grand Appeal supporting patients and their families at Bristol Royal Hospital for Children. The aim is to give an Easter egg to every child in hospital over the Easter period.

This year we rallied together and helped to collect 92 Easter treats including Easter eggs, soft toys, books and games.

The team from the Grand Appeal were inundated with gifts from so many people across our community and had the following to say;

"It is these kind gestures that make the world of difference for many young patients and siblings that will be spending the holidays in hospital".

Raising the bar with our fund raising

We support a specific charity for every quarter of the year. The charities that we support are voted for by people across the business and every year the team get more inventive on how we can raise the bar! Here are just a few of the charities we have supported over the last 12 months.

Blood Bikes

Blood bikes provides free out of hours medical transportation service to the NHS

More info - http://www.bloodbikes.org.uk/

Headway Bristol

Headway Bristol provide social and cognitive rehabilitation for adults with brain injury.

More info - http://www.headwaybristol.org.uk/

West of England MS Therapy Centre

The MS therapy centre provides treatment and therapies to people living with Multiple Sclerosis and other neurological conditions.

More info - http://mstherapybristol.org.uk/indexmain.html

Dementia UK

Dementia UK provide specialist and compassionate dementia support for all families that need it.

More info - https://www.dementiauk.org/

Along with our quarterly charities, we also support adhoc charities throughout the year during national fundraising days. These have included Jeans for Genes day, Red Nose Day, Christmas Jumper Day, Wear it Pink, and Children in Need.

We're extremely proud that over the last 18 months we have helped to raise a total of £6407.19 for 14 different charities. We're already busy planning the many fancy dress and fundraising days to support the planned charities in 2018 including Ronald McDonald House Charities and the Children's Hospice South West.