Willow Wood Hospice will receive a grant of at least £1,000 from the Cadent Foundation - and is now in the running for it to be trebled.

The Ashton-based hospice was nominated and voted for by Cadent employees in the North West. 

It has been shortlisted in Greater Manchester along with Big in Mental in Bury and Sharks Community Trust in Sale to receive a share of a £25,000 grant fund in the second round of the Cadent Foundation's 'Connecting Colleagues, Customers and Communities' initiative, which was first launched last year. 

The Cadent Foundation is funded by local gas network Cadent, and employees across the North West were asked to nominate local charities which were then shortlisted to go forward to a public vote.

The final stage is now under way, with Cadent engineers equipped with information and material to allow customers to submit a vote and find out more about the individual charities. The charity with the most votes in each region will receive £3,000 and the two runners-up will get £1,000 each.

In the first funding round, £25,000 was awarded to 15 charities across the North West. 

Julia Dwyer, Director of the Cadent Foundation, said: “The ‘Connecting Colleagues, Customers and Communities’ initiative has been a fantastic success as it allows Cadent customers and colleagues to make a real difference in their local community by nominating and voting for charities which are close to their hearts.

"We had a huge response from the public in the first round with more than 1000 votes cast – and we already look set to far exceed that number this time around. 

“We’ve seen first-hand what a huge difference this funding can make to local charities, especially after the last 18 months. Charities like these play a vital role in in our society and we’re delighted to be able to offer our support to help them continue their great work.”

Willow Wood Hospice is an adult hospice providing specialist palliative care for patients with life limiting illnesses. It offers a number of services including an Inpatient Unit, Day Hospice, Hospice at Home, Dementia Support and Bereavement Counselling.

Anthony Lord, Head of Income Generation and Marketing, said: “Eight out of ten of all our patients are paid for by money raised by our fantastic supporters and over the last 12 months, we have been hit hard due to the pandemic as people have not been able to fundraise as much.

"We are incredibly grateful to the Cadent Foundation for this grant as it will help us massively in looking after our local communities." 

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