Appleby Westward donates over £30,000 to Marie Curie

South West SPAR wholesaler, Appleby Westward, has raised over £30,000 for end-of-life charity, Marie Curie.

Over the past year, the Cornwall-based company has held multiple fundraising events at its head office and has encouraged its company-owned and independently-owned SPAR stores to do the same.

Many of Appleby Westward’s South West stores have got involved in fundraising by holding cake sales, raffles and competitions. Each store has also donated 10p from each bunch of bananas (including 5p per bunch donated to the fund by banana-giant Fyffes) and each bunch of daffodils sold during March, to tie in with Marie Curie’s Great Daffodil Appeal during the same month. Stores also stocked Marie Curie’s daffodil pins.

The staff at Appleby Westward’s head office have created a ‘staff shop’ containing snacks and office supplies. They also hold regular raffles and donate any money raised through Christmas Jumper Day to Marie Curie each year. One area manager even went the extra mile and got his legs waxed to raise money at one of his Plymouth stores.

Appleby Westward has supported Marie Curie since 2017 and has raised over £143,000 since then.

Marie Curie Corporate Partnerships Manager, Imogen Duffin, said: “We’re incredibly grateful to Appleby Westward’s staff and SPAR stores for their support of Marie Curie. From staff members fundraising individually, to cross-store promotions, their donations mean that we can be there for people at the end of life.”

In addition to its fundraising efforts, Appleby Westward helped the charity during the COVID-19 pandemic by transporting PPE around the region and enabling Marie Curie nursing staff to collect it from their local SPAR store. Across the South West, Marie Curie nurses used an average of 21,000 pieces of PPE a week during the pandemic, including face masks, aprons, gloves, visors, goggles, and hand sanitiser, so Appleby Westward’s generosity ensured that nurses could continue to care for their patients safely.

Imogen continued: “Their community spirit shone through in the pandemic when despite being extremely busy themselves, they helped deliver PPE to our local nurses. This meant our nurses could be in people’s homes safely, delivering vital care when families needed it most.”

Other charities Appleby Westward and its SPAR stores have supported recently include St Luke’s Hospice, St Michael’s Community Fridge & Larder, memory loss charity Prama Life, and The Tree Council. Appleby Westward hopes to continue its fundraising efforts throughout the year and will continue encouraging its SPAR stores to support Marie Curie and other local charities wherever possible.

To find out more about SPAR, visit www.spar.co.uk.