UCAS - UCAS staff pull out all the stops to raise money for LINC, in support of colleague Catherine Beck

UCAS staff pull out all the stops to raise money for LINC, in support of colleague Catherine Beck

On Friday 14 September UCAS hosted a festival themed event named 'UCAStonbury' at its headquarters in Cheltenham. The event that was nearly as wild as the real Glastonbury festival was an afternoon conference for staff, followed by an evening of entertainment for the whole family. Staff embraced the theme, coming in festival fashion.

During the weeks leading up to the event, colleagues of Catherine's were busy rounding up prizes for a raffle in order to raise money for LINC (a charity dedicated to supporting patients and their families affected by leukemia, lymphoma and other blood cancers). The charity was chosen by 32 year-old Catherine, who was diagnosed with leukaemia after a routine visit to her GP in May of this year. In the raffle with a difference, staff not only donated prizes, but also promises. One employee offered a week's free holiday in their villa in Spain and another employee promised to take a fellow colleague to a restaurant of their choice, all expenses paid. Some local businesses also donated prizes. The raffle that was drawn by Dr Gill Rouse, Director of LINC raised an impressive £1423.10.

Dr Gill Rouse, Director of LINC said: 'I was very honoured to be asked to say a few words about LINC at the wonderful event. The Leukaemia and Intensive Chemotherapy Fund works to improve the care of patients receiving intensive chemotherapy giving support to both patients and their families. We will shortly be launching our Make a Difference Campaign to fund more clinical psychology time and I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone at UCAS who contributed to the raffle raising very welcome funds for LINC. They're support is very important to us and much appreciated.'

Jo Redfern, Commercial Director at UCAS said: 'It was great to have Dr Gill at 'UCAStonbury' drawing the raffle and talking about the great work LINC do. Events where UCAS staff and families can all get together like this are always great fun, but this one presented the perfect opportunity to raise some money for Catherine's chosen charity. People were very generous with their prizes and promises, but also with their time - selling raffle tickets can be a time consuming job! Catherine's a really popular member of the team and we were all keen to help in any way we could.'

Media contacts
UCAS Press Office: 01242 545469

Kate Davis, Communications Officer
Email: k.davis@ucas.ac.uk

Notes to editors

UCAS, the Universities and Colleges Admission Service, is a charity and is the UK's leading shared admissions service for higher education. We manage applications from over 650,000 applicants each year for full-time undergraduate courses at over 300 institutions across the UK.

Photographs available on request.

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