WONDERFUL supporters from the corporate community are gearing up for the final push to reach their £2million fundraising goal.

Staff at Peninsula Group have today announced they have reached the £1.75m mark – and directors are now encouraging the workforce to get behind the last leg of their journey towards hitting the magical milestone of £2m.

Peninsula Group, the UK’s leading HR, employment law and health and safety consultancy firm, originally pledged to raise £1m for Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital Charity back in March 2019. They were moved to make such a generous pledge after hearing about the Charity’s iMRI Appeal.

Then in April 2020, inspired by the hard work and dedication shown by the NHS during the Covid pandemic, Peninsula Group announced they’d be upping this to £2m – doubling their efforts to support the iMRI Appeal.

Peter Done, Group Managing Director and Founder of the multi-award-winning firm, said: “We’re so excited to reach this point in the fundraising pledge – £1.75m is a fantastic milestone and one our employees have worked so hard to raise. We know what a difference it will make to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital and the Charity’s iMRI Appeal.

“But while this is a time of celebration at how far we’ve come, it’s also an opportunity to look forward and really get excited about how we will reach our £2million target by December 2022.

“I’ve got a very personal connection with Royal Manchester Children’s hospital and it’s a cause that means a lot to us at the Peninsula Group. It’s been a privilege to meet some of the staff and young patients this money will affect. Hearing their stories and seeing for myself what incredible things the hospital achieves each and every day has really reaffirmed just why we started this fundraising journey in the first place – to make a difference.”

The £5m iMRI Appeal will help the hospital to purchase state-of-the-art intra-operative Magnetic Resonance Imaging (iMRI) equipment which will revolutionise surgical care at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.

Every year, thousands of children and young people from across the region attend Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital – part of Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust’s family of 10 hospitals – for specialist neurological treatment.

Sadly, many will require complex brain surgery for a range of debilitating and even life-threatening conditions including brain tumours, traumatic brain injuries, problems with the central nervous system and epilepsy.

The specialist team of children’s neurosurgeons at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital rely on MRI scans taken before surgery to guide them to the area of the brain requiring treatment. Sometimes a child needs to be scanned during surgery, which means the risky process of moving a child (still anaesthetised on the operating table) out of theatre and through the hospital corridors to be scanned in another part of the building. Yet it isn’t until another MRI scan is taken after surgery – perhaps days later – that surgeons can see if the surgery was successful, or if any damaged tissue or tumour was left behind and further invasive surgery is needed.

Prof Stavros Stivaros, Director of Neuroimaging at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, said: “It is an acutely distressing process for our young patients and their families to have to go through and for those requiring a second scan after surgery, the wait can be agonising.

“The iMRI will be the answer for all those families and patients. It will revolutionise brain surgery here at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital and help us to save even more children’s lives.

“There are number of options being explored as to how this is provided alongside the existing hospital facilities and the Covid pandemic has taught us a lot about how we can provide these state-of-the-art facilities when we are faced with unprecedented healthcare pressures.

“It will mean our surgeons can do all of the scanning while the child is still on the operating table, in a safe sterile environment.

“The new iMRI equipment will mean children need fewer general anaesthetics and potentially fewer surgeries – they could go straight from the scanner into surgery as many times as needed. Our surgeons would have all the information they need to reach the affected area of the brain, to maximise the removal of the tumour, at the first time of asking. And their loved ones can rest assured that their child has left theatre only after everything that could possibly be done, has been done.

“We’re so incredibly grateful to Peninsula Group for their ongoing support and I can’t thank each and every staff member enough for the enthusiasm they’ve shown in this appeal.”

Peninsula Group managed to raise a phenomenal £1.75m by encouraging staff to take part in several challenges – including Great Manchester Run 10K and Half Marathon, the Charity’s own Humphrey’s Heroes Abseil, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, interdepartmental football tournaments and skydiving. Each staff member’s individual fundraising efforts were match-funded by the corporation. The business has also match-funded and sponsored a number of Charity events including Christmas Carols in the City and a special ball held in 2019 to mark the hospital’s 10th birthday of being at the Oxford Road site.

Further funds have been raised in-house with the team organising fun days at the office including dressing up days, bake sales, a static bike challenge in the office and various social events. Employees have also signed up to make regular donations via payroll giving.

The next events they will be taking part in include the charity’s Christmas Jumper Day and Christmas Carols in the City.

To find out more about Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital Charity visit rmchcharity.org.uk