Pictured above: Colin Flanagan, chairman, and Freeth
Cartwright staff handing over a cheque for £30,000 to Laura
Parsell, Corporate Partnerships Manager
Leading law firm Freeth Cartwright has raised a massive
£30,000 for the charity Anthony Nolan, exceeding the target
originally set at £25,000.
The charity was chosen in memory of one of their young
solicitors, Paul Richardson, who died in 2009 aged just 30. Paul
had been diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL), which
is an aggressive form of cancer affecting the production of white
blood cells in the body's bone marrow.
Over the year, Freeth Cartwright staff have participated in
countless events.
Sporting events have included the Marrow run, the Great
Manchester Run, Nottingham Marathon and Half Marathon and the Royal
Parks Half Marathon, cycling, walking, Dragon boating, ladies'
football and rounders. Personal records were broken. Solicitor
Polly Wisner ran her first marathon; solicitor David Lane ran 100
miles in the last 12 months, while partner Murray Macnab completed
100 miles of running, cycling and walking.
Other events included a number of dress-down days, cake baking,
a book sale, a charity raffle, dressing up in favourite football
strips, a quiz, an indulgence evening, Demons of Tune throwing a
concert at Oceana and an Extreme Logo Competition which ran
throughout the year.
Partners Pledged items for auction which enabled staff to bid
for items as diverse as a space in the firm's car park to a week's
holiday in Cyprus!
Along the way many donations of both money and prizes were
received from clients. Amongst these the Institute of Quarrying,
prompted by partner Paul Calladine, donated £1,500 to the
fund.
The firm's partnership with Anthony Nolan also had a serious
side to it because Anthony Nolan help to save lives by matching
donors to those who urgently need a transplant. They have over
400,000 people on their register, all willing to save the life of
somebody they've never met. But because they can only match donors
and patients by their tissue types (of which there are millions)
finding a match is still difficult and a number of staff donated a
sample of spit and joined the Bone Marrow register.
Colin Flanagan, Chairman, said: "The loss of Paul was felt
throughout the firm, and so it was with great pleasure that we
announced that Anthony Nolan was to be our Charity of the Year
2010/11. We set ourselves an ambitious fundraising goal as well as
targets to raise awareness, recruit potential donors to the
register and share skills to ensure that we can support this
fantastic cause in as many ways as possible. I am delighted
we managed to exceed the target by £5,000."