AN OLDHAM park was overrun on Wednesday (June 17) as more than a thousand schoolchildren joined together to raise money for a hospice.
Volunteers from Doctor Kershaw’s Hospice, Oldham, said they were left “chuffed” by the support as more than 1,200 primary school students ran two kilometres through Alexandra Park.
The ‘Eid Run’ – which took place three weeks after the official date for school timetabling reasons – has only grown since its launch last year.
The idea first came from volunteer Jill Kirkham, who noticed the popularity of similar Christmas-themed runs from the hospice, and wanted to better include Muslim communities across the region.
“We’re part of a sports partnership, and we were thinking about how we can involve a community that has been harder for us to get involved with,” she said. “So we came up with the idea for the Eid Run so we could be part of their celebrations during a special time for them, and it’s just grown from there.”
Based in Royton, Doctor Kershaw’s Hospice is a community-based service that provides care for terminally ill patients and their families across Oldham and Saddleworth.
The hospice team caters for a wide range of illnesses completely free of charge, and most recently welcomed a new Dementia Hub, which is set to be expanded in the coming weeks.
Alongside a team of paid staff, Doctor Kershaw’s also welcomes over 400 volunteers from across the region. Between them, they save the hospice an estimated half a million pounds each year, which is directly poured back into patient care.
Among those providing support is Tom Penketh. After a career in funeral care, he has since progressed from being a volunteer to a member of staff – as well as a Lib Dem councillor for Royton South.
He said: “My mum works at the hospice, so I knew I always wanted to work there.
“People think that it’s just cancer that we deal with, and while there’s a lot of people who do come through to us with cancer, it’s not all we do. Now we’ve set up our Dementia Hub which runs two different groups every week, and it’s amazing to see that they’re able to get that support somewhere.
“Our volunteers are an absolute credit to us; they work on reception, they work in the café, they work on events. We wouldn’t be able to function without them, or without our supporters in groups like this.
“Every penny makes a difference.”
50% of the proceeds earned from the Eid Run will go towards funding the hospice’s services for the foreseeable future.
And according to Lorna Philip, who works between 25 schools as part of the Pinnacle Learning Trust, the rest will go directly back into local schools across the region to buy equipment and resources for the children.
“We’ve made Doctor Kershaw’s our trust’s charity,” she said. “We run events over the year, like the Reindeer Run, the Eid Run, a Dragon’s Den… It’s massive for the kids to be doing work for local charities.
“The other big thing we found is that a lot of these children’s families don’t know about the hospice. Many tend to look after their family members at home, and that was a big barrier to break down – that there is help out there for them. So we’ve done a lot of awareness to show what our hospice is really about, and to show that it doesn’t all have to fall on families.”
Among the schools set to benefit from the fundraiser is Oldham’s Broadfield Primary School, which this year sent 240 children to take part in the event.
According to teaching assistant Luke Lawson-Healey, the Eid Run has quickly become a mainstay for the school’s calendar.
“Everybody from Year One to Year Six has come to the park to do the run,” he said. “But [the funding] actually helps a lot with sports equipment, and we’ve also used it for trips and experiences for the children – anything to enhance their curriculum or experience with sport.
“It happens to be our Sports Week this week, and for the children, [this event] really helps them to know more about their local area and meet other schools. You see their attitude change, you see them be a lot happier, you see them being active, healthy, smiles on their faces.
“It’s been really good to have that support from Doctor Kershaw’s to support the community.”
Doctor Kershaw’s Hospice is now gearing up for a range of fundraisers to further support their work, including a Summer Fair on 12 July.
Further information on their upcoming events, as well as on how to donate, is available on their website.
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