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SuperValu and Centra well on target for a record breaking year as October fundraising brings in £63,000

Posted By:
Musgrave Retail Partners NI

5th Dec 2023

SuperValu and Centra are celebrating after an epic October of fundraising, which saw enthusiastic staff and caring customers raise a phenomenal £63,000 for long-term charity partner Action Cancer.

Pulling out all the stops, stores across Northern Ireland got behind three major fundraising initiatives, while Centra Run Together in Ormeau Park was an overwhelming success.
Kicking off the fundraising and celebrating International Coffee Day, Musgrave’s Espresso We Care initiative saw 50p from the sale of each coffee sold over four days in SuperValu and Centra go straight to Action Cancer.

Next up and coinciding with Breast Cancer Awareness month, Musgrave challenged SuperValu and Centra stores to each raise £120 over the course of a week – the amount it costs Action Cancer to provide a free mammogram to women outside of NHS screening age – and the only charity in the UK to do so. With some stores raising enough to pay for three and four breast screening appointments, this campaign really resonated with shoppers.

In the run up to Halloween, 50p from the sale of every pumpkin sold across SuperValu and Centra stores also went to Action Cancer while many stores hosted their own additional fundraising activities. Staff from Lusty’s Centra in Larne and Larne Port dressed in pink and raffled a hamper, while more fantastic hampers were up for grabs in SuperValu Tandragee and Centra Deansbridge, Armagh. In Bushmills, Centra staff got into costume for Halloween and held a coffee morning while over in SuperValu Dromore, a giant Andrex puppy was raffled to raise money.

In the most successful Centra Run Together to date, 1,600 runners gathered at Ormeau Park in Belfast to take part in 5k and 10k routes. Every penny of the registration fees was donated directly to Action Cancer, while donations on the day and sponsorship from participants brought the total raised for this one event to an incredible £35,500!

Director of Marketing for SuperValu and Centra, Desi Derby said:
“We are absolutely blown away by the support from our retail partners, their staff, our generous customers, and our colleagues, for really getting behind our fundraising initiatives and for being creative and organising their own activities in stores. And, of course to every single person who took part in Centra Run Together. To raise more than £60,000 in one month is incredible and brings us close to our annual target of £175,000.

“This money ensures Action Cancer can keep its mobile detection unit the Big Bus on the road, delivering life-saving services to people in communities across Northern Ireland. Together we are making a real difference.”

Lucy McCusker, Corporate Fundraising Manager for Action Cancer added: “This is a fantastic result for one month of extremely focused fundraising activity and we are enormously grateful to everyone at SuperValu and Centra and their wonderful customers for supporting us. It costs Action Cancer £120 to provide a free breast screening or skin cancer detection appointment and £50 for a health check. This £63,000 will provide 525 breast screening or skin cancer detection appointments, or 1260 health checks – which will ultimately help us to continue to save lives.”