- First donated more than £145,000 worth of advertising space on buses to support Macmillan's World's Biggest Coffee Morning campaign
FirstGroup is driving up support for Macmillan Cancer Support by donating more than £145,000 worth of advertising space on its fleet of 6,400 buses across the country. The donation will raise awareness of Macmillan’s World’s Biggest Coffee Morning this September, and is made as part of First’s partnership with the leading cancer support charity.
Macmillan’s World’s Biggest Coffee Morning will see thousands of people host coffee mornings in their homes, offices, and communities on Friday September 26 to raise vital funds for Macmillan.
FirstGroup employees hosted more than 40 coffee mornings in 2013 raising over £22,000. First hopes to smash that total this year with events planned at First depots and offices throughout the country, in addition to its donation of advertising space on buses.
Katie Smart, FirstGroup’s Corporate Responsibility and Community Manager, said: “Every single First bus in the UK will feature a Macmillan coffee morning advert from September. We’re pleased to help Macmillan reach our customers and hope our support will contribute towards a record breaking number of coffee mornings on September 26.
“First’s three year partnership with Macmillan began in 2012 after our employees overwhelmingly voted it as our national charity partner. Our aim is to raise £1million in cash and kind by March 2015 – we’re well on the way to reaching that target with almost £900,000 raised so far.”
Sally Hill, Partnership Manager at Macmillan Cancer Support said: “I’d like to say thank you to FirstGroup for its support of World’s Biggest Coffee Morning this year. The advertising space on First buses will help us to reach out to many more members of local communities across the country who may be inspired to fundraise by holding a coffee morning. That combined with the money raised by First staff’s own coffee mornings will help Macmillan to ensure that no one has to face cancer alone.”
To register for a coffee morning please go to macmillan.org.uk/coffee
ENDS
For any further information, please contact Niall Dowds, Head of External Communications, First UK Bus, on 01224 650011 or 07860 936671 or email [email protected]
Notes to editors
FirstGroup plc is the leading transport operator in the UK and North America with revenues of more than £6.7 billion a year. We employ approximately 117,000 employees and transport around 2.5 billion passengers a year.
Our vision is to provide solutions for an increasingly congested world… keeping people moving and communities prospering.
First UK Bus
FirstGroup is one of Britain’s largest bus operators with around a fifth of bus services outside London. A fleet of some 6,400 buses carries approximately 1.6 million passengers a day in a huge number of communities including 40 of the UK's largest towns and cities. We operate Greyhound UK providing regular intercity coach services linking South Wales and Bristol Airport, and we also operate some US-style yellow school buses and have a fleet of coaches available for charter. We also operate the Aircoach network in Ireland.
About Macmillan Cancer Support
When you have cancer, you don’t just worry about what will happen to your body, you worry about what will happen to your life. Whether it’s concerns about who you can talk to, planning for the extra costs or what to do about work, at Macmillan we understand how a cancer diagnosis can take over everything.
That’s why we’re here. We provide support that helps people take back control of their lives. But right now, we can’t reach everyone who needs us. We need your help to make sure that people affected by cancer get the support they need to face the toughest fight of their life. No one should face cancer alone, and with your support no one will.
To get involved, call 0300 1000 200 today. And please remember, we’re here for you too. If you’d like support, information or just to chat, call us free on 0808 808 00 00 (Monday to Friday, 9am–8pm) or visit macmillan.org.uk