Failsworth company raises £15k for a charity close to employees' hearts

Date published: 28 February 2020

Staff from Failsworth company, Hubron, have over 15,000 reasons to celebrate, after they raised over £15,000 for Liverpool charity, Ronald McDonald House, Alder Hey.

Ronald McDonald House offers free accommodation to families with sick children who are patients at Alder Hey hospital, and the charity was nominated as Hubron’s charity of the year to support by employees Amanda Jones and Dominic Carroll.

The charity is close to Amanda’s heart, as her and husband Robert, stayed at Ronald McDonald House while their son George was receiving treatment at Alder Hey hospital. Dominic’s close friends Andrew and Pascale also stayed at the house while their son Serge received treatment at the hospital.

The adventurous team were keen to raise as much money as possible for the charity, and threw themselves into events such as a trek up Snowdon, challenge event Rough Runner and even a company car wash by the directors to reach their target. After completing their fundraising, the parent company, the O’Brien group trebled what they had raised, taking it to a huge £15,335.

Amanda found herself at McHouse a day after her son, George, was born 5 weeks early. He was struggling to breath and it took 4 attempts to get him on a ventilator after he had turned blue.

Amanda said:

"At 24hrs old we were told that he had maxed out all the treatment and care level that the hospital could provide and he would need to be transferred for specialist care or he wouldn’t make the night.

"Within the hour we found ourselves in an ambulance and on our way to Alder Hey for heart and lung bypass life support."

They ended up sleeping in the hospital with him because they had nowhere else to go and they only had the clothes they were wearing with them. That's where McHouse came in. 

"It was such a relief to not have to worry about where we were going to sleep and it meant we could be by our sons side when ever we wanted. 

"The support we received at McHouse was amazing and you were never made to feel like you were in the way."

She was determined to give back to the house so for Georges 1st birthday they asked family and friends to not buy him presents but donate the money for McHouse.

"In the following few months my company brought out a new charity drive so myself and Dominic put McHouse forward.

"Hubron is a plastics company with only 50 employees and is run by the O’Brien Group, OBG, which own a handful of other independent companies. OBG set each company a challenge to pick a charity and fund raise for it and promised to double every penny raised for each group but the group who raised the most would get treble the amount.

"As part of it, my husband and I carried George to the summit of Snowden!

"The Hubron team have always supported me and we are all so proud to raise this incredible amount.”

George and Serge are both happy at home thanks to the support and care they received.

They cheque is being presented to McHouse today (28th February) and the money raised by the Hubron team will be used to refurbish three bedrooms as part of the charity’s #RoomForChange campaign.

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