Boots Ireland’s partnership with the Irish Cancer Society in 2019
Overview of the Partnership
Since its establishment in the Republic of Ireland in 1996, Boots has been committed to being at the very heart of the community, delivering exceptional customer and patient care. Boots Ireland partnered with the Irish Cancer Society in 2012, and since that time the partnership has grown and evolved to become a core element of our CSR programme.
What originally started out as a fundraising initiative has extended over the course of the partnership to include several aspects which cover fundraising, volunteering, raising awareness of cancer as well as early detection.
Annually there are over 40,000 people diagnosed with cancer in Ireland, that’s one person every 3 minutes. Current predictions indicate that 1 in 2 of us will receive a cancer diagnosis within our lifetime.
Implementing Best Practice
Our colleagues, who like everyone else have been impacted by cancer either directly or indirectly, remain committed to our partnership with the Irish Cancer Society and engage in a range of fundraising activities over the course of the year. These include Daffodil day, Halloween & Christmas events, along with on-going local store based events culminating in our Annual Night Walk for Night Nurses (one of our biggest fundraising events of the year).
All monies raised by Boots go towards the Irish Cancer Society’s Night Nursing service which provides up to 10 nights free end of life care allowing patients to remain at home surrounded by their family and loved ones. To date through the support of our colleagues and customers Boots has raised over €1.7 million equating to over 5,000 nights of care.
We have also extended our support for the partnership by becoming the main sponsors of Daffodil Day since 2018, the Irish Cancer Society’s largest national fundraising event.
In helping to support those affected by cancer, we have utilised the expertise of our colleague’s in-stores and introduced two key roles. These are the Boots Irish Cancer Society Information Pharmacist role and the Boots Cancer Beauty Advisor role, which help people dealing with the effects of cancer by providing advice to help them not only look better but feel better too as well as signposting & linking them into relevant services.
In conjunction with these roles alongside hosting Irish Cancer Society Cancer Prevention Advisors in selected stores throughout the year, we are making cancer information and support, easily and readily accessible within local communities across Ireland.
The Impact of the Partnership
Boots Ireland has raised over €1.7 million for the Irish Cancer Society Night Nursing service over the course of the partnership, equating to over 5,000 nights of care
Boots’s Impact in 2019
Boots provided €3,841 through in-kind donations and €297,458 was raised through employee fundraising. Employees also volunteered 1,977 hours to local groups and projects during the year.
