Staff at the Midlands office of national audit, tax and advisory firm, Crowe Clark Whitehill, have been raising money for three leading charities over the last 12 months and have presented cheques totalling £6,150.
The money is being split equally between Acorns Childrens’ Hospice, Leukaemia CARE and Kemp Hospice.
And the presentation was made at the firm’s Midlands office with Mike Hammond, chief executive of Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham’s QEHB charity, chosen as this year’s beneficiary, there to mark the launch.
Johnathan Dudley, Midlands managing partner of Crowe Clark Whitehill, said: “It has been a wonderfully generous response from our staff who have diligently raised money for these three extremely worthy causes, coming up with ever more original ways of doing so. We are delighted with the amount raised, particularly as this is our first fundraising year.”
Acorns has hospices in Walsall, Worcester and Selly Oak, Leukaemia CARE is based in Worcester and Kemp Hospice is in Kidderminster.
For this year it was decided to focus on just one charity and staff were asked to vote from a shortlist of three.
QEHB is the receiving hospital for all UK military patients who are wounded or injured anywhere in the world and most particularly in the on-going Afghanistan conflict.
The Crowe Clark Whitehill fund raising will be directed towards Fisher House at the hospital which is under construction as a ‘home from home’ where troops can spend time away from the ward with their families, friends and colleagues, who in turn can be on the spot without having to make often long and tiring journeys from home on a regular basis.
The purpose-built two storey £4.2 million facility is being funded by the QEHB Charity in partnership with Help for Heroes and the American charity Fisher House Foundation for whom it will be a first venture into the UK.
It is hoped the building, which includes 18 en-suite rooms, will be ready to open in March 2013.