Charity roundup 2024
December 16, 2024
Along with continuing our partnerships with charities and foundations such as Burning Nights CRPS Support and Headway – the brain injury association among many others, we have donated around £150,000 this year to local and nationwide charities.
This includes Forever Manchester, St Ann’s Hospice, Macmillan Cancer Support, Greater Manchester Blood Bikes, The Maggie Oliver Foundation, The Children’s Adventure Farm Trust, Frenkel Topping Charitable Foundation and many more.
Check out the video below to see some of the exciting fundraising activities we got up to throughout the year.
Christmas Jumper Day
December 12, 2024
Staff celebrated Christmas Jumper Day by wearing their best festive clothing to support our nominated charity, Little Lady Locks.
The fantastic organisation provides wigs and free hair loss systems for anyone suffering from hair loss in the UK that are under the age of 18.
We are happy to have raised over £106 for the charity.
@express_solicitors This year our teams rocked their Christmas jumpers while raising money for Little Lady Locks! #Christmas #OfficeTok #ChristmasJumper ♬ Jingle Bell Rock – Bobby Helms
Donating presents to Children’s Adventure Farm Trust
December 3, 2024
In November we once again arranged a staff present collection for a local children’s charity, The Children’s Adventure Farm Trust (CAFT).
CAFT is a fantastic charity that helps terminally ill/disabled/disadvantaged children in the North West by giving them a holiday and respite.
Over the Christmas period, CAFT will be delivering presents to these children to ensure they have something to open on Christmas Day.
Our Communications Officer Rosario Monachino, HR Intern Mia Evans and Facilities Assistant Andy Moran recently went over to the farm to deliver the presents bought and wrapped by their Express colleagues and to see the amazing work that CAFT does.
@express_solicitors This November we once again arranged a staff present collection for a local children’s charity, @CAFT Children’s Adventure Farm. It’s always a pleasure to see all the presents gifted and wrapped by Express colleagues. #Charity #CSR #officetok #Christmas ♬ Scandalo al sole – Percy Faith
Headway visit
November 27, 2024
We visited Headway North Staffordshire in Stoke to take part in the charity’s AGM 2024 and celebrate all the amazing work carried out there this year.
Raffle prizes had been made by the service users in the charity’s workshop and various other gifts were up for grabs.
Express Solicitors works closely with Headway in Stoke, a branch of the leading UK charity dedicated to the care and support of people who have sustained a brain injury.
We also sit on the Headway Head Injury Solicitors Directory 2024 which means we provide support via donations and our outreach services, as well as day-to-day support for patients and loved ones of those affected by brain injury.
In addition to this, we’ve made a Christmas donation of £540 which will go straight to the patients and families affected, and we’ve also provided Christmas gifts to all the very deserving and dedicated Headway staff.
Player sponsorship for Chester Rugby Club
November 25, 2024
We’re proud to provide Oliver Doak, our Emerging Talent Officer, with a player sponsorship for his rugby team, Chester Rugby.
Giving out staff support both in the workplace and with their activities outside of work is something take enormous pride in.
Oliver said: “It means the world to me that I can represent Express with pride when I train and play.”
Burning Nights 10th anniversary annual conference
November 16, 2024
Damian Bradley and Will O’Brien, Partners in our Employers’ Liability team, attended Burning Nights’ 10th anniversary annual conference, as part of CRPS Awareness Month.
The pair had their own stand at the conference where they offered advice on how Express can support those living with this condition.
Express Solicitors is part of Burning Nights Legal Panel which consists of law firms that specialise in personal injury, clinical negligence and legal cases where injuries have caused the onset of CRPS.
As a member of the Legal Panel, we assist Burning Nights with providing a helping hand to any Complex Regional Pain Syndrome patient with the best legal advice, should they need it.
Sponsorship for Manchester Vixens
November 4, 2024
We’ve sponsored Manchester Vixens Football Club, a local team that plays in the third tier of the Greater Manchester Women’s Football League. Kate Hall and Rael Millington, who both work in our Employers’ Liability department, play for the team.
Kate, who is also the treasurer for Manchester Vixens, said: “We have over 25 women signed up to the team and will be playing in the Sunday League over the next season. As a new club, we are extremely excited about what the future may look like.”
Rael added: “Express recognises the importance of grassroots football and was happy to sponsor us.
“I’ve played football since I was five years-old and it has always been a huge part of my life. Not only that but football has been such a great outlet for my stress while working and it’s great to see my firm support this.”
Caketober
October 31, 2024
This Halloween, we took part in Caketober to raise money for Forever Manchester.
All the cakes were given a spooky makeover and it was great to see staff come in their best Halloween costumes.
Similar to our Macmillan cake sale, we previously held the cake sales across multiple offices. This year, however, we were excited to be able to host the event in our Town Hall at our new office at South Court, south Manchester.
The cake sale was successful throughout the day and we managed to raise £150.45!
Macmillan Cake Sale
October 1, 2024
We took part in the Macmillan Coffee Morning to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support.
In previous years, we’ve had the cake sale spread across multiple offices, but this year, we were able to hold it in our Town Hall at our new office at South Court, south Manchester.
Our employees love taking part in the coffee morning and yesterday was no different, with contributions of homemade cakes and bakes from across departments.
The bake sale was popular throughout the day and we managed to raise £323!
@express_solicitors @Macmillan Cancer Support coffee morning! #cake #baking #caketok ♬ The Great British Bake Off – Tom Howe
Great North Run in support of Burning Nights
September 9, 2024
Congratulations to William O’Brien, who participated in the Great North Run this past weekend.
He completed the race in 2 hours and 40 minutes and raised £1,945 for Burning Nights CRPS Support.
Rebecca Adams, the Director of Ontime Reports, also raised just under £500 before she unfortunately had to drop out of the race due to an injury.
The funds raised will provide support for individuals suffering from Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), a condition in which a person experiences persistent, severe pain in their limbs, usually following an injury.
July and August nominated charity – Blood Bikes
September 3, 2024
In the last two months, we have been raising money for our staff-nominated charity, Blood Bikes.
This organisation promptly delivers blood and other medical supplies to hospitals across the country.
Through staff donations, we’re happy to say that we raised £320 for the charity.
Since everyone involved with Blood Bikes is a volunteer, all the money raised will go toward covering costs such as insurance, bike maintenance, and fuel.
Summer raffle for Headway
August 15, 2024
We have continued to strengthen our relationship with Headway by raising money for the charity at this year’s Express summer party.
We had a raffle for all the employees and their families, with all the money raised going to Headway North Staffordshire. We are pleased to say that we raised an amazing £2,300 for the charity. Thank you to everyone who contributed.
The money raised will go towards improving the charity’s counselling services to support those who have suffered or are affected by a brain injury.
Battle Cancer Manchester
August 1, 2024
This year we had a mighty team take part in Battle Cancer Manchester in support of Kidney Cancer UK.
In addition to having a staff-nominated charity for July/August, Kidney Cancer UK was separately put forward by Hannah Buswell, whose mum is currently fighting the disease. All the money raised will go towards further research that will help catch kidney cancer earlier on as, currently, it shows no symptoms until diagnosis.
To prepare for the competition, the staff trained hard in the Express gym located in our South Manchester office.
Congratulations to Hannah, Amy Cassell, Jennifer Lutton & Kimberley Kirkby who finished 6th (out of 49 places) and raised over £2,000.
BOXX2BOXX Partnership
July 16, 2024
We have teamed up with BOXX2BOXX COFFEE to sponsor and support a weekly walk run by mental health charity Thrive, meaning all those taking part can enjoy a free coffee at the end.
Check out the video below to hear from the CEO of Thrive and staff from BOXX2BOXX as they discuss the significance these weekly walks have on your physical and mental health.
May and June’s nominated charity – St Ann’s Hospice
July 2, 2024
For the past two months, Express has been raising money for St Ann’s Hospice, one of the oldest and largest adult hospices outside of London.
Our partnership with the hospice goes back a long way and this time we supported the charity by having riders take part in this year’s Tour De Manc, as detailed below, as well as having volunteers help out at the event.
We’ve totted everything up and we’re delighted to say that we raised nearly £4,000 including the sponsorship of the cycling jerseys for the race itself.
The money Express has raised will go towards the St Ann’s Hospice #BuildItTogether campaign which will fund a new state-of-the-art hospice in Manchester, construction on which has now begun!
10km for Forever Manchester
May 26, 2024
This year we had a team of runners tackle the Great Manchester Run in support of Forever Manchester. Well done to Katie Ellis, Rebecca Adams, Alex Foster, Lily Cottle, Alexandra Kulakowski & Samuel Fabunmi who raised over £1,000.
Express Take Part in the Tour De Manc for St Ann’s Hospice
May 9, 2024
Express has once again partnered with St Ann’s Hospice and taken part in the charity bike ride that takes in the hills and sights of Greater Manchester, the Tour de Manc.
We not only funded the jerseys for all those riding for the hospice, but we had an Express team of volunteers helping out at one of the refreshment stations and five of our employees bravely took on the challenge themselves.
We’ve so far managed to raise nearly £3,000 in sponsorship and the Express support for St Ann’s Hospice will continue in our South Manchester office throughout May and June 2024 as our chosen charity for those months.
Everything we’ve raised will go to St Ann’s Hospice in aid of the #BuildItTogether campaign which has been set up to fund the building of a new state-of-the-art hospice in Manchester.
Bake Sale for ‘Dancing With Dementia’
March 26, 2024
Rachel Flannigan, Partner in RTA organised a bake sale for a charity close to her called ‘Dancing With Dementia‘.
The charity is a local one which helps provide social activities for people with dementia but also other disabilities too. They meet once a week in Swinton and then also run monthly meet ups for lunches and excursions too. They provide holiday boxes to those who have no families too. They have singers and dancers who give up their time to entertain those who are suffering with disabilities.
Donating Supplies to Coffee4Craig
21 March 2024
Express Solicitors collected dry food and clothing throughout the month of February to donate to Coffee4Craig who are a Manchester based charity that run a drop-in centre for the street homeless in Manchester.
Express Solicitors continues its support of The Maggie Oliver Foundation
06 March 2024
Express Solicitors is proud to have renewed its partnership with The Maggie Oliver Foundation (TMOF) for a further year, marking the occasion with another donation.
TMOF was founded by detective-turned-whistle-blower Maggie Oliver who exposed the Rochdale grooming scandal. The foundation supports survivors of childhood sexual abuse and exploitation. Read more here.
Express strengthens Partnership With Headway
25 January 2024
We are delighted to continue our support of leading brain injury charity Headway UK.
The development will see Express Solicitors renew its corporate membership and join the brain injury solicitor’s directory for 2024.
Read more about the partnership here.
Donating presents to Children’s Animal Farm Trust (CAFT)
29 November 2023
In November we arranged a present collection for local children’s charity CAFT.
CAFT is a fantastic charity that helps terminally ill/disabled/disadvantaged children by giving them a holiday.
Over the Christmas period CAFT will be putting together presents for these children to ensure that they have something to open on Christmas Day.
Our Marketing Manager Seb Halstead and Marketing Executive Ben Allan recently went over to the farm to deliver the presents.
We wish all the children visiting CAFT this year a very Merry Christmas!
Pictured below is Hannah Grahame (CAFT) and Ben Allan.
Attending the Burning Nights conference
5 November 2023
Michael Hardacre, Partner in Occupiers’ and Public Liability, and David Dean, Senior Associate Solicitor in Employers’ Liability, attended Burning Nights’ 9th Annual National Conference, now the CRPS Patient and Carer Information Day, in Nottingham on 4 November.
This provided a great opportunity for Michael and David to meet some of the charity team at Burning Nights and talk to those living with and managing Complex Regional Pain Syndrome.
Great Manchester 10km in support of Forever Manchester
21 May 2023
Yesterday our team of runners took part in the Great Manchester Run in support of Forever Manchester – a fantastic charity that provides support to our local community.
Despite the heat, our runners managed to finish the race and collectively raised a total of £3,195.
Well done! 👏
May’s Charity of the Month – Independent Options
This month, the team at Express Solicitors are raising funds for Independent Options, an incredible charity that works to empower people with disabilities.
Tour de Manc Bike Ride in support of St Ann’s Hospice
30 April 2023
On Sunday our team took part in the gruelling Tour de Manc bike ride in support of St Ann’s Hospice.
Express Solicitors supported the St Ann’s Hospice team on the day by providing all the jerseys for their riders, manning a feed station for hungry cyclists and a few of the team even took part in the event by riding distances between 50km and 100 miles!
A huge thank you to all that volunteered on the day and well done to all of the riders 👏
Collection for the Huntington’s Disease Association
4 April 2023
We are proud to have helped raise £265.12 for the Huntington’s Disease Association during the month of March, thereby helping to support the community.
Manchester Central Food Bank
A HUGE thank you to all of our staff that donated food for Manchester Central Food Bank.
We are very proud to support this vital charity and hope that our donation will make a difference.
Best Companies and Burning Nights CRPS
At Express Solicitors we. are committed to employee satisfaction and finding ways to improve.
To encourage our staff to complete the Best Companies satisfaction survey we pledged to donate £1 for each finished survey to our headline charity Burning Nights CRPS – raising a total of £284.
Burning Nights CRPS Support Annual Conference in Edinburgh
6 December 2022
The annual Burning Nights Annual CRPS conference brings together speakers from the legal and health industries, in addition to people with an in-depth knowledge of complex regional pain syndrome.
Express Partners Damian Bradley and Robin Patey attended the event which took place in Edinburgh on the 26th of November. They were joined by Sue Tomkinson, a leading care expert, who gave a talk at the event.
The conference is held in November each year to coincide with CRPS awareness month. On each occasion, the location is changed to allow people from different parts of the country to attend more easily.
The event hosted speakers which covered a range of topics surrounding CRPS. There was also a fundraising raffle, which we donated an iPad towards – raising almost £400.
Donations to the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal and the NHS Patients Association
5 December 2022
Following our best year yet at Express, the Partners have decided to collectively donate £4,000 to be divided between the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal and to the NHS Patients Association.
These are two charities which carry out vital work and we feel strongly about.
Halloween Charity Event
31 October 2022
What a spooktactular way to start the week! This Halloween we held a bake sale and fancy-dress competition to raise money for Forever Manchester. We managed to raise £80 total with the cakes sold.
A huge thank you to all that took part – our winners are as follows:
The Bakers:
1st Prize – Ben Hyland (£25.00 cash prize)
2nd Prize – Petal Peters (bottle of wine or box of chocolates)
Fancy Dressers:
1st Prize – Carolyn Mercer (1/2 day holiday)
2nd Prize – Amie Etherington (bottle of wine or box of chocolates)
Cycle Around the Globe for International Association for Suicide Prevention
12 October 2022
The Express Team have been cycling to raise funds and awareness for the International Association for Suicide Prevention. The charity runs a month-long fund-raising challenge every year called Cycle Around the Globe, which begins on World Suicide Prevention Day and aims to encourage people to have fun while helping a great cause.
This year we decided to match every mile ridden by our team with a £1 donation to IASP. Despite the cold and often wet Manchester weather, we were able to raise £750 by riding an impressive 705 miles!
Well done team!
Frenkel Topping Masquerade Ball
29 September 2022
The Express Team had an unforgettable evening at the Frenkel Topping Masquerade Ball. The organisers pulled out all the stops to ensure that all guests were entertained.
We enjoyed a delicious three-course meal whilst being serenaded by a classical singer, accompanied by incredible acrobatic dancers and magicians!
We also heard some inspirational stories from the people that Frenkel Topping has helped. We all had a fantastic time and were proud to support Frenkel Topping and all the vital work they do for injured people and their families.
Macmillan Coffee Morning
13 – 14 September 2022
Our team volunteered to bake for the Macmillan Coffee Morning event but also helped by making donations.
The Macmillan’s Coffee Morning is Macmillan Cancer Support‘s biggest fundraising event to support people living with cancer. Money raised at these coffee mornings helps everyone with cancer to live life as fully as they can.
The Booth Centre in Manchester
1 September 2022
At Express Solicitors, we give monthly donations to charities to do our part to serve the community.
The charity we decided to support for September 2022 is The Booth Centre in Manchester nominated by Chloe Cresswell.
The Booth Centre is a community centre run by people affected by homelessness and provides a warm welcome, an opportunity to belong, gain a purpose and rebuild lives. Includes activities such as volunteering, creative projects and sports, as well as training and help to gain employment. To learn more, there are videos on their YouTube channel or get a virtual 3D tour of the Centre.
Northenden Boat Race
28 August 2022
We participated in the 2022 Northenden Boat Race on Sunday, 28 August – with 3 teams! We’re proud of all of them, especially team Rob McKenna and Daniel Coetzer, who came 2nd!
More importantly, though, we helped raise money for The Christie charity. The total raised as of 30 August was £510. You can help by donating via https://www.justgiving.com/user-account/fundraising. This year’s Northenden Boat Race proceeds will go to the Teenage and Young Adult Unit Fund at The Christie.
Burning Nights Raffle at the Express Summer Party
7 August 2022
Summer Party – the Express family event of the year took place on 6 August. The party was attended by almost 500 Express staff and families, with fantastic activities, games and food for all to enjoy. We held a raffle with a great selection of prizes, which raised a huge £1,667.56 for our headline charity Burning Nights.
Thank you to our hosts James and Jo Maxey, organisers, all attendees and those who supported through donations. What an amazing party!
Great Manchester Run
23 May 2022
On Sunday 22 May 2022 a few brave people from Express and Ontime took part in the 10K Great Manchester Run for Forever Manchester. Well done Jennifer Luton, Louise Griffiths, Neil Sagar, Robert McKenna, Joseph Granelli, Catherin Clews, Emma Mazurkiewicz, Elliot Cox, Mariam Radi, Amelia Timpany, Nicholas Rety, Louise Barker, Filipe Estevao, Alex Foster, Joe Brown, Jamie Grout, William O’Brien, Richard Lowery, Daniel Coetzer, Rebecca Stevens, Carly Ablott, Rocco Paone and Stephen Bolton!
Our team had a fantastic time and was proud to support Forever Manchester by raising £3,861.
Tour de Manc
1 May 2022
On Sunday 1st May 2022 Daniel Slade, Liam Wynne and Rocco Paone (our new Marketing manager) took on the challenge of Tour de Manc, one of Manchester’s toughest cycling events. Congratulations to the team for completing the 100k ride for St. Ann’s Hospice in our branded cycling shirts! Rocco was on a mission for the yellow jersey but followed the wrong route and accidentally came 4th in the 50k race before resuming the 100k ride!
Express Solicitors sponsored this event and provided a free food and drinks at the feeding station at Bolton Sailing club – giving hundreds of weary riders the strength to finish the course. A huge thank you to all the willing volunteers who showed up and ran that with military precision: Rachel Flannigan, Kate Ellis, Petal Peters, David Small, Richard Beddow, Phil Armstrong, Jon Andrews and Daniel Coetzer.
Mental Health Awareness Week
9 May 2022
Loneliness was the theme of 2022 Mental Health Awareness Week. Between 9th—15th May 2022 the team here at Express were raising awareness through events and sharing of information and resources.
To raise awareness amongst the team, we had an online talk by speaker Racheal Foster, shared resources including some great articles by Law Care, and held a Walk & Talk session which was attended by many colleagues from different departments. Thank you so much to all that took part in these events, and to our Diversity and Inclusion team for organising.
Blood Bikes Manchester
31 March 2022
Blood Bikes are an invaluable charity that have been serving our community for several years, but have recently lost government funding, with volunteers often using their own funds to pay for fuel.
Express Solicitors were very proud to support Blood Bikes by donating £1,000 to help keep the riders on the road and delivering blood and medical supplies to those in need.
