Tesco partnership raises an astonishing £5.6 million
Friday 21 May 2010
We are delighted to announced that our Tesco Charity of the Year 2009 partnership has raised a staggering grand total of £5.6 million.
This spectacular sum is nearly double our original £3 million target and enough to provide more than 800 children affected by muscle-wasting disease with life-changing equipment like powered wheelchairs and electric beds.
Tesco Chairman David Reid presented the final cheque to Muscular Dystrophy Campaign Chief Executive Philip Butcher and wheelchair recipients ten-year-old Libby Smalley and Stevie Pearson, 17, at an end of partnership ceremony held at the Tower of London.
The ceremony also recognised members of Tesco staff who had made a significant contribution to the partnership with the staff fundraising awards.
The Charity of the Year money was raised by a combination of staff fundraising events and product promotions both instore and online. A partnership with Proctor & Gamble across 15 leading brands led to a £300,000 contribution and an extensive TV advertising campaign; a first in over 20 years of Tesco charity partnerships.
Sales of charity greeting cards amounted to almost £500,000 while a series of promotions from Tesco Photo raised over £140,000. Tesco Bank's pledge to donate 0.0125p from each use of a cash machine over the year resulted in more than £60,000 being added to the total - equating to more than five million transactions.
David Reid, Tesco Chairman, said:
I am delighted that Tesco staff and customers have gone the extra mile to help others. In such a difficult economic time, it's great to have raised such a fantastic amount of money for children across the UK who would otherwise have found life more difficult.
Philip Butcher, Muscular Dystrophy Campaign Chief Executive said:
When we initially set our target for the Tesco Charity of the Year partnership, I thought that raising £3 million would prove a difficult task for us as a medium-sized charity so to have nearly doubled that is a marvellous achievement.
Thanks to Tesco's staff and customers hundreds of children living with muscle-wasting disease now have equipment that is often expensive and unavailable on the NHS, or else involves being placed on a waiting list for up to eighteen months. During a recession when the families of children with muscular dystrophy found their finances even more stretched, these funds have been a real lifeline.
A huge thank you goes to anyone who has contributed to our amazing year!