O2 Bury staff vote to support Macmillan Crossroads as their project of choice in 2008

19 February 2008 – Staff at O2’s contact centre in Bury will be raising funds for the Macmillan Crossroads project over the next year. Since the start of the year staff at the Bury base have been nominating charities and voting for which one they want to support throughout the year. Four projects were short-listed – Age Concern, Bolton Hospice, Stoneclough Community Centre and Macmillan Crossroads. Over 500 O2 staff voted for their favourite and the Macmillan project to help fund additional care support hours was the winner with 51%. As the O2 site community project for the year Macmillan Crossroads, a scheme which eases the load for carers who are looking after people living with cancer in the home and provides a much needed break, will be able to create up to an additional 1250 hours of carer support. This is part of a wider range of services provided by Macmillan Cancer Support which includes emotional, financial, medical and practical support for people affected by cancer. Thanks to a sale of old and disused phones by O2’s Value Development Team last week the team in Bury have already raised just under £1000, well on the way towards the £20,000 target. Tracey Newman, who heads up the O2 fundraising Community Crew on site, said: “I am delighted that we will be supporting the Macmillan Crossroads project over the coming year and I know our staff are excited about getting on with raising as much cash as they can for the project. Working with a local project makes the result of fundraising even more special and we are also looking forward to becoming directly involved in the project as well. “Deciding which project to work with was extremely hard and I would like to wish all the finalists every success. I am sure the £1000 donation we have given to each runner-up organisation will help them towards making their plans a reality.” Rose Tipton, Fundraising Manager for Macmillan Cancer Support, said: “I am thrilled that the staff of O2 voted for our project it will make such a difference to so many families in Bury. I am really looking forward to joining the Community Crew, having seen some of the photographs of past fundraising events I am sure we are going to have great fun raising the money!’ The decision to support a local project marks a step change in the way O2 raises funds for charity. For the past three years the company have worked with a single UK charity partner but decided to give staff at its five main sites across the country the opportunity to raise cash for a project of their choice, in their local area. The Big Site Project aims to raise over £15,000 for the Macmillan Crossroads project and is part of the wider It’s Your Community programme, which allows groups, organisations and charities to apply for awards ranging from £100 to £1000 to make a difference within communities. As part of the decision process each of the runner-up projects were given a £1,000 It’s Your Community award as recognition of their project. For every online and text vote cast O2 gave a donation of 50p to the chosen project. – ends –