Over the last year, contact centre staff from Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks' (SSEN) offices in central southern England have been fundraising for their chosen charity, Rowans Hospice.
The teams, which are mainly based in SSEN's Customer Contact Centres in Havant and Cosham, officially handed over their cheque to the charity last week, after raising £9,447 for the hospice which provides free care and support to adults in the local community who have a life-limiting illness, and their families.
SSEN Customer Service Advisor, Liz Elkins was instrumental in the teams' efforts to raise money for the local charity and explains more:
"At the start of 2019, members of the contact centre voted for the charity that would be the focus of fundraising activities for the year ahead and, with a massive majority, Rowans Hospice was chosen.
"It's a local hospice charity and many of our colleagues here have had family or friends receive invaluable end of life care with them."
Since 1994, Rowans Hospice has delivered care to people with life-limiting illnesses, supporting them and their families, and had launched its Capital Appeal to completely redevelop the hospice; enabling it to continue caring for members of the community for many more years to come. It was this appeal that SSEN decided to support through a series of fundraisers across the year.
Liz continues: "We set ourselves the challenge to raise as much money as we could, so through activities like the Three Peaks Challenge where we raised £2,500 in 24 hours, completing a Tough Mudder, taking part in the Great South Run and holding regular bake sales and setting up a tuck shop, we've been able to hand over nearly £9,500 to Rowans Hospice."
During the years activities, the team also used 75 of their Be the Difference days for fundraising or volunteering in aid of Rowans Hospice; throughout the year, SSEN gifts its staff 'Be the Difference' days to enable them to take time away from their day jobs to volunteer for charities and good causes.
Gemma Carden, Rowans Corporate Lead stated: "A huge thank you to all the staff at Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks for raising an amazing £9,447.80, totally smashing the £2,500 target set by the Capital Appeal Corporate Challenge.
"As a local charity we depend heavily on the donations and support of our local community and businesses. The money raised will help to totally develop and modernise our local community Hospice, to make sure that it can meet the changing needs of patients and their families.
"We hope that more organisations will be inspired by the staff at SSEN and take on the Capital Appeal Corporate Challenge."
In 2020, SSEN colleagues in central southern England will be raising fund for this year's chosen charity, Macmillan Cancer Support, the UK-wide charity providing emotional, physical and financial support from the time of diagnosis, through cancer treatment and beyond.