Cambridgeshire charities get Xaar employees’ vote

Staff at Xaar, the Cambridgeshire-based leading independent manufacturer of industrial inkjet printheads, have chosen two local and two national charities to benefit from a new £12,000 charitable giving programme set up by the company.

The two local charities chosen for the programme: the Arthur Rank Hospice, Cambridge, and the Special Care Baby Unit at Hinchingbrooke Hospital, Huntingdon, will each receive £2,000 from Xaar.

The Arthur Rank Hospice provides free-of-charge specialist palliative care and support to adult patients and their families, friends and carers across Cambridgeshire, whilst Hinchingbrooke’s Special Care Baby Unit provides high dependency care and short periods of intensive care for premature and sick babies.

This year, the programme’s first, Xaar’s employees at Cambridge and Huntingdon also chose to donate £2,000 each to two national charities: The Stroke Association, and Cancer Research UK. The remaining £4,000 of the 2012 programme is being donated to two charities in Sweden where Xaar located its first manufacturing plant in 1999.  Xaar personnel made their choices on the basis that the charities either provide benefits locally or have specific connections to Xaar employees or their families.

Donna Talbot, Fundraising & Marketing Manager for the Arthur Rank Hospice Charity said: “We are absolutely delighted that Xaar has chosen to support us and we would like to thank the management and employees for their very generous contribution. Their £2,000 donation will make a tremendous difference at the Charity and will most definitely benefit those who require the wide array of services available at Arthur Rank House.”

Kate Rivett, manager for the Special Care Baby Unit, run by Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust, said: “We are always incredibly grateful to individuals and companies that choose to donate to our unit. Their generosity helps to make the lives a little easier for those families that find themselves in the difficult position of having a sick or premature baby in hospital. We are absolutely delighted that Xaar has chosen the Special Care Baby Unit as one of the local charities to benefit from their charitable giving programme and we look forward to using the money to purchase something that will help make the journey that our families experience a little more bearable.”

The new programme is in addition to the ongoing support the company gives to its charitable fundraising activities. Most recently the company added £3,000 to the £3,300 raised by staff for the Movember appeal, in support of prostate and testicular cancer, and contributed an extra £1,000 to the £240 raised by the team who took part in the Children in Need Fun Run around the Cambridge Science Park where Xaar is based.

Alex Bevis, Xaar’s Finance Director, said: “We are delighted to donate to these four very deserving UK charities.  We also plan to continue our charitable giving programme in 2013 and beyond, giving Xaar employees the opportunity to select the recipients each time.  As a significant employer in Cambridgeshire we were pleased that our staff selected local charities in our programme, whilst also supporting two very deserving national charities.”

Cambridge:

• The Arthur Rank Hospice (www.arhc.org.uk) provides funding, over and above that provided by the NHS, which enables specialist palliative care services to be enhanced, expanded and introduced.  The aim is to enable patients and those close to them to live as fully as possible in the time remaining to them.
• The Stroke Association (www.stroke.org.uk) provides high-quality, up-to-date information for stroke patients, their families and carers.  Each year an estimated 150,000 people in the UK have a stroke.  Most are over 65, but strokes can also affect children and even babies.

Huntingdon:

• The Special Care Baby Unit run by Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust on the Hinchingbrooke Hospital site (www.cambscommunityservices.nhs.uk) is staffed by doctors and nurses with specialist skills and experience in looking after premature and sick babies.  Babies admitted to the unit may need help with their breathing, feeding, temperature control and weight gain.
• Cancer Research UK (www.cancerresearchuk.org) is the world’s leading charity dedicated to beating cancer through research.

Järfälla:

• Seven childhood cancer associations are members of the Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation (www.barncancerfonden.se), which acts to promote co-operation and co-ordination between these associations.  The Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation is a non-profit association financed by donations and bequests. The Foundation receives no financial support from the state, county councils or municipalities.
• The Swedish Cancer Society (www.cancerfonden.se) — the single largest financer of cancer research in Sweden — is an independent non-profit organisation with the vision of finding cures for cancer. The overall aim of the Society is to achieve a higher survival rate and a reduction in the incidence of cancer.  Its main task is to raise and distribute money for cancer research.