Raising Thousands for Charity: House Buyer Bureau’s Charity Programme

In January 2015, we launched the House Buyer Bureau Charity Programme to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support, which provides support to people with cancer and their families. Many of our customers have been positively affected by the work of the charity, so we chose Macmillan as part of House Buyer Bureau’s ongoing commitment to customer care and ethical working.

Through monthly donations to Macmillan Cancer Support in line with the number of properties we purchased, in addition to contributions from customers and proceeds from staff fundraising activities we hosted, we raised a total of £17,285 for the charity, exceeding our target of £17,000.

In 2018, we sadly lost a dear friend and colleague, Michael Spencer, to cancer. LOROS Hospice is a local charity that cares for over 2,500 people across Leicestershire and Rutland. It provides free, high-quality, compassionate and tailored care and support to terminally ill adult patients, along with their family and carers. LOROS was a fantastic support to Mike and his family, and in honour of Mike’s memory, we wanted to give something back.

Who Was Mike?

Mike Spencer was instrumental in building House Buyer Bureau to where it is today. Aside from being a loyal and trusted employee always happy to lend an ear and teach others what he knew, Mike was a real character who we could always rely on for a smile. 

When Mike was diagnosed with cancer, the people at LOROS were incredible. In addition to providing inpatient and outpatient care, LOROS also offers an enablement team, psychological support, spiritual care, home visiting and day therapy services, community nurse specialists, a lymphoedema clinic, complementary therapy sessions and cultural support. It does this at no cost to patients and their families, but it costs a staggering £8.2 million a year to run the Hospice. A grant from the NHS covers a third of this, but that still leaves more than £6 million that the organisation needs to raise each year to continue providing its unique, high-quality support. Achieving this wouldn’t be possible without the help of the local community.

In memory of Mike, the House Buyer Bureau Charity Programme donated a portion of our proceeds based on how many properties we purchased. We’ve exceeded our target of £2,500 and raised just over £10,000 for LOROS.  You can read more and donate via the Just Giving page. For more information about the charity, call (0116) 231 3771 or visit the website.

Following the huge milestone of raising  over £10,000 for LOROS we decided it was only fair to see who else we could help.  We came across the Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance at a local B2B Networking group.  Following a presentation, it made us realise how we’d probably just take it for granted that if we ever needed an air ambulance, it would be there.

The Lincs and Notts Air Ambulance provide the equivalent of an A&E department at the side of the road or middle of a field. They get no support from the NHS and are solely funded by donation alone. Each rescue flight costs £3,500, so we thought as a business we could try to raise enough to sponsor at least one flight. We don’t want to ever need their services, but if the worst ever happened to a friend or family member, we’d want to know there was the support of the Air Ambulance available if it was needed.  You can visit the Just Giving page to help our cause.  For more information about the charity, call 01522 548469 or visit the website.