Raising Money for Alzheimer’s Society? Piece of Cake!

On Thursday 14th June, Chesterton House held its first Cupcake Day to raise money for Alzheimer’s Society. The event was based in our Woolley Beardsley’s and Bosworth building, and John Bolton has the story.

Firstly, a little bit about what we’re dealing with here. Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of Dementia, which describes a set of symptoms that includes memory loss and difficulties with thinking, problem solving or language.

Unfortunately, there is currently no cure for Dementia, and Alzheimer’s Society predict that 225,000 people will develop the disease this year, which is one every three minutes. Equally for every person living with Dementia, the annual cost to the UK economy is over £30,000 while just £90 is spent on Dementia research each year.

So, we thought, what could we do to help?

Raising money for Alzheimer’s Society can help fund a variety of treatments, such as drugs to slow the progression, person-centred care to improve quality of life and talking therapies.

Throughout the UK people took part in Cupcake Day to help fund these types of treatment, so we called our resident bakers, armed with wooden spoons and mixing bowls, to the fight against Dementia!

Chesterton House’s recipe for the day differed slightly from that of Alzheimer’s Society’s, and it was as follows:

1. Sign up and receive a fundraising kit from Alzheimer’s Society.

2. Promote the event within the company, sourcing willing bakers (or buyers).

3. Request prize donations for the raffle.

4. Bake the cakes the day before in preparation, remembering to ice the cakes AFTER they have cooled!

5. Watch the table groan from the sheer weight of our fantastic bakers’ creations.

6. Raise lots of money, eat lots of cake and win prizes.

In the morning of Cupcake Day, the table in the kitchen of Woolley, Beardsleys and Bosworth’s started to fill up with people’s creations. Soon there was a plethora of colours and shapes, all very inviting to those that hadn’t eaten breakfast in preparation, though that could have just been me. I may be biased, but I would say some were worthy of a Paul Hollywood handshake…

Throughout the rest of the day staff filtered in to buy cakes, raffle tickets and entries into games, and soon enough our moneybox was full to the point of bursting. The reception areas in No. 3 and No. 29 also had cakes on offer for our clients to enjoy with a cup of tea, which were well received. We were delighted to welcome many clients who came along to join in, and if you were one of them we’re really grateful for your support.

Over the course of the day we collected £174, which Chesterton House generously agreed to match, therefore giving us a total of £348. According to Alzheimer’s Society this is enough for two of their National Dementia Helpline Advisers to provide “10 hours of crucial support to people affected by dementia”. This just shows how easy it can be to raise money for a worthy cause, I mean, who would have thought that eating cake could save lives?

The way in which our staff and clients got involved with Cupcake Day is truly commendable – whether it was staff members icing their creations at midnight the night before and coming in a little early to help set up, or clients seeing the newsletter email and popping over for a chat.

While the cupcakes had to come to an end at some point, for our diets’ and kitchen’s sake, unfortunately Dementia does not. Alzheimer’s Society take donations online at https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/get-involved/make-donation if you feel inclined to get involved. Be sure to look out in our newsletters for the next charity event we host!