Well Wishers is the charity that supports Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust and works with patients, their families, staff and local businesses and groups to make a real difference for the people who use the Manor Hospital and Community Services.

Fundraising helps by raising money for items and equipment over and above what the NHS is able to provide and also benefits Goscote Hospice, Fair Oaks Hospice and Walsall Palliative Care Centre.

As part of the charity’s ongoing strategic plan, Well Wishers wants to work with businesses within Walsall and the surrounding area to help them achieve their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), play their responsible part in society and give back to the community.

A big part of that is fundraising for a worthy cause. Through businesses’ support to Well Wishers, the charity can help provide them with the opportunity to make a difference in their communities and to support the treatment, care and outcomes, for what is more than likely a huge proportion of their employees.

Any donations to the charity go straight to benefitting patients right across Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, and because of this, businesses are keen to get on board with the charity, including a more recent partnership with Steps to Work and Starting Point Recruitment, based in Walsall.

Steps to Work is a Walsall-based charity with more than 20 years’ experience supporting local unemployed residents to build their confidence, gain new skills, face their challenges, and ultimately obtain secure employment and financial stability.

Steps to Work Chief Finance Officer Caroline Hill said: “Steps to Work and Starting Point Recruitment are passionate about social values.

“Starting Point Recruitment donates 100 per cent of its profits each year to Steps to Work to enable it to make a difference in the local community.

“We feel that by partnering with the Well Wishers charity we will have a far greater reach and will help make a difference to the lives of people who are not able to walk through our doors because of their current circumstances.”

Across 60 sites supported by 4,700 staff, the Trust provides local general hospital and community services to around 260,000 people in Walsall and the surrounding areas.

Among Well Wishers’ many successes are Lolly’s Place – a chill-out room for teenage patients on the Children’s Ward – a sensory room at the Child Development Centre used daily by children with long-term conditions and more recently, Blossom Boxes for end of life patients and their families.

Fundraising and Engagement Manager Georgie Westley said: “We are extremely proud of what we have achieved to date with the support of the  community and local businesses and we would love to build on those relationships, create more opportunities for involvement and to make even more of difference to the people we care for, their families and our staff.”

Anyone interested in working with Well Wishers should contact Georgie Westley on 01922 656643 or email her at georgie.westley@nhs.net. The web address for Well Wishers’ LinkedIn profile is https://www.linkedin.com/company/well-wishers/