Tears as Gloucestershire begins its biggest challenge to date

Tears greeted the start of possibly the county’s most ambitious and courageous fundraising campaign to date – a bid to raise millions of pounds to transform cancer treatment for everyone.

Dear readers, 

Welcome to Monday’s edition of The Raikes Journal. I hope you had a great weekend. 

I’ve gone all ‘first person’ on you because I owe an explanation for last week’s radio silence here at The Raikes Journal. 

I took a decision to shut up shop after the death of a close family member. It was an emotional end to a challenging few weeks.  

As you know, Raikes is a micro-business, a community interst company working to establish itself and to serve the county with regular editions you can rely on, usually published on a Monday, Thursday and Friday. 

The Monday edition is beginning to attract as many readers as any other email ‘newsletter’ covering business in the county - (I know because I used to write the best-read stories on those newsletters) – but as important as it is to stick to publishing on those days to build that readership, somethings are more important. 

I remember an era when it was frowned upon to take time off for anything at all, potentially even career defining, but all things change. 

Something in the preamble above made the visit to the launch of The Big Space Cancer Appeal in Cheltenham before my time off all the more poignant. 

There were others in the room carrying more of a burden, yet from their positions of influence or relative affluence they still wanted to do their bit - and remain anonymous as well. 

I hope the story below about the launch reads like more than just a news report, that it puts across some of the human emotion being directed with such passion to show how much the county cares for anyone and everyone who faces cancer. 

There were tears in the room, but an awful lot of determination, confidence inspired by great leadership and a desire to do better that made you feel very proud to say you live in Gloucestershire. 

Raikes is looking for more sponsors to join its current stable. If you are interested, please email andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk or telephone 07956 926061. We plan to release some figures shortly, but feel we are moving towards being able to claim to be the best read digital publication in Gloucestershire for business stories.

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Your briefing notes 

🎉 Hartpury University, one of the partners that has helped make The Raikes Journal possible, remains in the top 20 per cent of UK universities for its impact on ‘local growth and regeneration’ - so says the fourth publication of the Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) released by Research England. Hartpury, which celebrated its fifth anniversary as a university this month (September), also features in the top quintile for its high engagement with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Read more here. 

🎉 The University of Gloucestershire has also come in for some recognition. It climbed 22 places in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide. Dame Clare Marchant, vice-chancellor of the university, said: “We’re absolutely determined to create the best possible experience for our students, so we’re delighted to have progressed so far up the ratings in this important league table. This 22-place rise is a testament to the positive impact we are having on student experience, so it gives a clear indication that our exciting plans are on track.”

🎉 Alex Madigan, the founder of Gloucestershire business Solux, has been honoured with The Music Works’ Youth Entrepreneur Award for his outstanding achievements in building and running a successful vegan and gluten-free catering business. Solux is a fledgling healthy food and lifestyle brand that specialises in providing 100 per cent plant-based food and drink options. The Music Works, in collaboration with partners including Smart Home Sounds and Eastgate Shopping Centre, provides winners with a comprehensive support package including £500 of start-up funds, mentorship, and a four-week retail presence within Eastgate Shopping Centre.

🔎 Barnwood Trust is seeking to recruit new trustees. The trust is ‘committed to building a board of trustees that reflects the diverse communities in Gloucestershire and welcomes applications from individuals with a range of life experiences’. If you are passionate about social justice and can dedicate yourself to improving the lives of disabled people and people with mental health conditions, this could be for you. You can find the full application pack on its website here. The deadline for applications is October 18.

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* Everything you read on The Raikes Journal is made possible by our incredible Founding Partners: QuoLux, Willans LLP, Gloucestershire College, Merrell People and Randall & Payne, our sponsors Hartpury University and Hartpury College, our Founding Members and wonderful paying subscribers.

If you upgrade to paid, you’ll be part of this community interest company too. In an era when local journalism is all but gone, we are dedicated to delivering quality journalism for Gloucestershire, to championing the county, in particular its businesses, charities, education and training providers, to defending it, challenging those who need to be held to account and to helping create an even stronger community. If you upgrade to paid you will be able to see past the paywalls on our second and third email editions of the week, that lock all our archive after two weeks and lock our rolling Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire, the series that follows the financial fortunes of our biggest firms by turnover. You will be able to comment on our stories too. You’ll be helping make this CIC sustainable. Please do join us.

You can sign up for just £2.30 a week - or £1.80 a week if two or more people sign up at once.

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Tears as Gloucestershire begins its biggest challenge to date 

Tears greeted the start of possibly the county’s most ambitious and courageous fundraising campaign to date – a bid to raise millions of pounds to transform cancer treatment for the thousands of us who need it every year.

By Andrew Merrell.

‘When you are told you have cancer’, someone once told this reporter, ‘no matter who you are, you feel all alone’. 

At The Queen’s Hotel in Cheltenham on the morning of Friday 20 September Gloucestershire announced its determination to change that truism; we saw a county pledging to do better for anyone who faces a cancer diagnosis. 

Often at the launch of a fundraising campaign it can be a big leap to buy into the grand plans. There is so much to be done, such a long way to go. 

But as the covers came off The Big Space Cancer Appeal in front of a room of invited guests and partners, there stood a ready-formed team – one that did more than just wow us with images of the oncology unit they aspire to deliver. 

This was not Cheltenham and Gloucester Hospitals Charity dreaming out loud, neither was it consultants from the oncology unit pointing out how much more could be done if only, Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust demanding more of Government or the business community braced for the inevitable demands for money. 

This was everyone onside.