Irwin Mitchell Charity of the Year

Sheffield based law firm Irwin Mitchell has delighted staff from Cavendish Cancer Care, by handing over a donation of £20,000 to the local charity.

The Irwin Mitchell Charities Foundation (IMCF) named Cavendish as its charity of the year for 2009, and held a variety of fundraising events for the charity throughout the course of the year.

These included a series of pub quizzes around Kelham Island, a netball tournament held at the English Institute of Sport, and a national quiz where various teams from each of the firm’s offices competed against each other.

In addition to events organised by the IMCF, the firm supported a number of staff members who decided to organise their own fundraising activities.

Amongst these was a 36 hour darts marathon, where four staff members attempted to break the world record for the longest continuous game of darts, and a mammoth walk to work by one solicitor who trekked from Manchester to the firm’s Sheffield office.

Sally Eustace, Corporate Partnership manager, from Cavendish Cancer Care, said: “We were absolutely blown away by Irwin Mitchell’s donation and cannot thank them and their staff enough. We knew they’d been raising money for us throughout the year but we never imagined they’d end up donating £20,000.”

The money raised is enough to cover the cost of therapy for all breast cancer patients helped by Cavendish for a year (based on the 2008 – 2009 levels).

Adrian Budgen, Partner at Irwin Mitchell and Chair of the IMCF, said: “We are delighted to have been able to raise so much money for Cavendish in 2009. Cavendish is a wonderful charity and has helped a number of my Irwin Mitchell colleagues and their families deal with issues surrounding cancer, and that is why we selected them as our charity of the year.

“We would also like to thank our staff for their participation and efforts in organising their own events. It is only down to their desire to support Cavendish that we were able to raise as much as £20,000.”

The Irwin Mitchell Charities Foundation has decided to continue to support Cavendish Cancer Care again in 2010 and has a number of fundraising events planned.

Several members of Irwin Mitchell staff are training for the Sheffield Half Marathon and one of the Partners, David Turner is in training for the London Marathon. There are also more pub quizzes and another netball tournament in the diary.