A large number of the people who work for Alliance Boots genuinely want to contribute in a way that benefits the wider communities in which they live and work. Wherever possible, we encourage this by providing volunteering opportunities and supporting their fundraising efforts. Volunteering in the local community is a good way for employees to do something different while at the same time strengthening their leadership and organisation skills.
Macmillan Cancer Support and Boots UK believe in people’s right to feel good in their daily lives by sharing an ambition to help everyone affected by cancer. By working together, Boots UK and Macmillan can improve the help available to the millions of people living with cancer in the UK and by combining our healthcare expertise and presence across the UK, Boots UK believe they can help Macmillan to reach more people and provide cancer support and information to everyone who needs it.
The Miles for Macmillan, www.bootsmilesformacmillan.co.uk, initiative is just one example of our commitment to Macmillan Cancer Support and a way in which many of our employees can volunteer their time and support.
Across the Group, we have made great progress organising and taking part in employee volunteering events and several of these events are included below:
Alliance Healthcare España has played a part in the NGO Médicos Sin Fronteras (MSF) (Doctors without Frontiers) campaign ‘Pills for other people’s pain’. In September 2010, employees began distributing MSF’s fund-raising ‘pills’ to pharmacies. The ‘pills’ are mint sweets costing €1 with accompanying information about MSF.
The money collected from the sale of the ‘pills’ is used to develop healthcare projects and the first project to be supported will be an AIDS project in Zimbabwe. ‘Pills for other people’s pain’ has had backing from other pharmaceutical wholesalers, pharmacists associations, public administration and celebrities.
Continuing its partnership with the children’s charity, Novo Futuro, our associate, Alliance Healthcare Portugal learnt that one of the charity homes was not easily accessed by public transport and that the ‘people carrier’ in use was in need of replacement. Alliance Healthcare Portugal managed to negotiate special terms and in September secured use of a new vehicle to be used for transporting the children to and from school and their extra-curricular activities.
In April 2010, a member of the team who worked for our associate, Alliance Healthcare Italia, in Vimercate, died due to a sudden illness. The event was a huge tragedy for his family but also for his colleagues. Alliance Healthcare Italia organised a fundraiser to support the family, raising €40,000, as well as holding a football match in his memory. Alliance Healthcare Italia is proud to have supported his family.
Every year in October, our associate Alliance Healthcare Portugal organises internal activities to promote awareness during breast cancer month alongside its breast cancer charity partner Laço. In 2010, this took the form of quiz which was circulated to all members of staff and small prizes connected to the charity were given to those with the correct answers.
As the questions in the quiz required a little research, this encouraged staff to search for information on Laço’s website, thereby gaining extra knowledge of the charity. Alliance Healthcare Portugal also continued its ‘Wednesday Pink Day’ throughout October 2010 and provided disposable cameras for each distribution centre to take fun photos, with a small prize for the most creative one.
In order to help Laço to promote awareness and encourage early detection of breast cancer, the business organised tailor-made workshops for its pharmacy customers. These workshops took place in seven Portuguese cities during November 2010 and were attended by over 500 pharmacists.