Farrell Heyworth in Lancaster raises thousands for Bloodwise in aid of colleague

An end of year party for regional staff has raised more than £5,000 for a blood cancer charity - after one of its directors announced he was suffering from Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia.
By The Newsroom
Published 21st Dec 2017, 12:10 BST
Updated 21st Dec 2017, 13:20 BST
John French, Farrell Heyworth financial services director, John Shellcross (holding the cheque) and finance director John Collins.John French, Farrell Heyworth financial services director, John Shellcross (holding the cheque) and finance director John Collins.
John French, Farrell Heyworth financial services director, John Shellcross (holding the cheque) and finance director John Collins.

Bosses at Farrell Heyworth, in Lancaster, organised the event at Ribby Hall Village, in aid of Bloodwise, which supports John Shellcross, 45.The estate agent’s top two sales people were challenged to sell as many tickets as they could, but after John explained he had been diagnosed with leukaemia in February, the donations came flooding in.Laura Gittins, PR and marketing manager, said: “After John had dropped this bombshell, our two brilliant salesmen went off into the crowd with raffle tickets and champagne buckets. What we didn’t expect was just how much this would mean to them. With the company doubling the amount raised initially, we have achieved a total in excess of £5,000 in less than 20 minutes. There were some extraordinary acts of kindness, Our Morecambe branch team who had just won £500 put every penny back into the raffle and the eventual winner Jack Oldham, our Barrow branch marketing adviser, generously returned the prize.

"We’ve done lots of fund-raising things before but now this feels personal and we really want to do whatever we can to support John and his family to beat this disease.

"We’ll be continuing our fund-raising efforts next year and trying to raise the profile of the Bloodwise charity and its life saving work."

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