News

Construction company Eric Wright Group is to sponsor Rosemere Cancer Foundation’s annual Walk in the Dark for the third consecutive year.

The 11-mile, night-time trek along the A6 from Chorley and South Ribble Hospital to Rosemere Cancer Centre, the region’s specialist cancer treatment centre at the Royal Preston Hospital, is scheduled to take place from 9 pm on Saturday, 27^th April.

This year’s Walk in the Dark will be the 11^th. Over the years, more than 2,500 people from throughout Lancashire and South Cumbria have walked the 11-mile route, collectively raising just short of £300,000 through entry fees and sponsorship. This makes Walk in the Dark Rosemere Cancer Foundation’s single most important event in the charity’s year-long fundraising calendar.

Of Walton Summit-based Eric Wright Group’s continued Walk in the Dark support, Rosemere Cancer Foundation’s Trust and Corporate Fundraising Manager Cathy Skidmore said: “We are delighted Eric Wright Group has again come forward to support Walk in the Dark.

“Walk in the Dark is an essential event for us and by taking on its sponsorship, Eric Wright Group is effectively covering its staging costs so that every penny raised in entry fees and from walkers being sponsored can go directly to helping us fund projects across Lancashre and South Cumbria to help local people going through cancer treatment right now.”

Jeremy Hartley, managing director of Eric Wright Group, said: “We are delighted once again to be involved in Walk in the Dark with Rosemere Cancer Foundation. As a local company, we are well aware of Rosemere Cancer Foundation’s work to support those in treatment at Rosemere Cancer Centre and all of our region’s hospital cancer units.”

Entry to this year’s Walk in the Dark is now open via online registration at www.rosemere.org.uk or by calling 01772 522913.

The entry fee is £10 per person with children under 12 able to participate for free. Dogs are also welcome. Walkers are invited to dress up to help give the event a carnival atmosphere and to display the names of loved ones they may be walking in memory of.

Walkers walk at their own speed – there is no time limit. All entrants receive a goody bag at the start of the walk and are welcomed at the finish with brews and bacon barms. There is a free bus service in operation prior to the start of the walk so that walkers can park their cars at the Royal Preston Hospital for when they finish, hopping on to a bus that will shuttle them back to the starting line in Chorley.

St Anne’s-based Beaverbrooks the Jewellers has signed up with a £5,000 donation to become an appeal sponsor of the campaign to open one of the UK’s first ever acute cancer triage units at Blackpool Victoria Hospital (BVH).

The £150,000 scheme will convert a disused operating theatre at the rear of the hospital’s Oncology and Haematology Day Units into a 999 call or walk-in assessment and treatment centre exclusively for the hospital’s cancer patients.

It will enable them to by-pass the Vic’s busy A&E department should their condition worsen, they fall ill or suffer treatment side-effects. At the new unit, they will receive immediate specialist help from the doctors and nurses making up the hospital’s Acute Oncology Team.

With work to create the potentially life-saving unit earmarked for completion before the end of this year, Rosemere Cancer Foundation and Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s own Blue Skies charity launched a partnership on 17^th January to bring in the funding.

Cathy Skidmore, Rosemere Cancer Foundation’s Trust and Corporate Fundraising Manager, said: “We are extremely grateful to Beaverbrooks committing to the appeal and for its donation.

“We have worked with the company and its colleagues for a number of years. Over this time, through donations, events sponsorship and employee fundraising activity, Beaverbrooks has given us a total of £110,000, which is beyond magnificent.”

Susie Nicholas, Charity Manager at Beaverbrooks, said: “We’re delighted to help kick start the appeal for the new cancer assessment unit at Blackpool Victoria Hospital. We know this facility will give patients faster access to the specialist treatment they need and vastly improve their experience. We’re so proud of our long-standing relationship with the teams at both Rosemere and Blue Skies and we want to help encourage our local community to get behind their fundraising for the appeal.”

It is estimated more than 500 local cancer patients a year will benefit from attending the new acute cancer triage unit, relieving pressure on A&E. Through the unit’s specialist oncology 999 treatment pathway, the number of patients needing hospital admission is also expected to fall while treatment outcomes are anticipated to improve.

The incidence of cancer in Blackpool is around 7% higher than the regional average and 20% higher than the national average.