I came to work at Birmingham St Mary’s Hospice because my aunt was cared for here when I was a child. She had breast cancer and when the time came for her to have chemotherapy she and my mom both did a sponsored hair shave.
I remember being really in awe of them at the time as I couldn’t think of anything worse than having all your hair shaved off! Little did I know, I’d eventually follow in their footsteps and a couple of years ago, me and my partner both did a sponsored head shave!
I’ve never really thought of doing an adrenaline challenge until the email came round about the Loop the Loop challenge and I signed up before I had enough time to chicken out!
Apart from having been personally touched by the fantastic work the Hospice does, I wanted to do this to represent our wonderful retail team. There is sometimes a bit of a perception that retail staff are quite disconnected from the Hospice in that we don’t work directly with patients or spend much time in the Hospice itself, but we are the faces of the Hospice for the public and we get to meet lots of customers and donors who have personal links to the Hospice, as do many of us ourselves.
I think it’s quite important that as a member of the retail team I get involved in Hospice events, as that helps me to feel part of the Hospice community.
Lots of people have said that I must be mad to do this – and sometimes I think I must be! If I get too scared I only have to think of some of our lovely customers, especially the ones who leave our shops saying, “Thank you so much, your nurses looked after my family member and they were wonderful”. I’m over halfway to my fundraising target so I’m feeling quite positive that I can hit it and contribute some much needed funds to the Hospice. It is really fantastic to know that I’ll be able to have so much fun whilst raising money!
Thank you for sharing your story with us Aimee and for being a part of the Birmingham St Mary’s team!
If you’d like to support Aimee’s brave challenge for the Hospice, just click here. Alternatively, if you’ve been inspired and would like to join her on Saturday 5th August for our Loop the Loop challenge, sign up here today.
(If this is too short notice, other dates are available. Just email us with your preferred date and we can check availability.)
