Christmas Jumper Day in aid of Save the Children was the culmination of another busy year of charitable and community focused activities here at HPP.
Staff here were among the hundreds of thousands of people nationwide who donned their finest festive jumpers in aid of the charity, which helps tens of millions of children across the world get the medicines, good food and education they need.
This year, we've raised just £188.50, boosted by sales of cake and cookies, easily beating last year's total!
The day was organised by our Marketing Manager, Kenika Gumbs, with help from T-Level student Poppy Park, who is spending an academic year combining her studies with a placement in our marketing department as a result of our partnership with Oldham College to support young people.
Kenika, who was raised by her grandmother on the Caribbean island of Anguilla after her mother passed away at a young age, says: "On a personal note, growing up without much, Save the Children means a lot to me. It's fulfilling to be able to help kids around the globe, who need so much more than the things we take for granted. It truly gives you a different perspective on life."
Our Christmas Jumper Day was our final fundraising event of 2025, and like last year, we held a best Christmas Jumper competition, which was won by Steve Brannon, from BP1, who took home a festive Regency gift hamper.
This year's fundraising activities began in bitterly cold conditions in February to mark World Cancer Day. But that didn't deter our team of hardy fundraisers from taking part in a 5k challenge for Maggie's Cancer Centre in Oldham.
Twenty colleagues, family members and some pets turned out to cover 5k in Alexandra Park on the doorstep of our Oldham HQ, raising over £450.
Maggie's Centre in Oldham is part of a UK-wide and overseas network of cancer support hubs, giving cancer patients, their families and friends practical, emotional and social support.
That was followed by our two Race4Life regulars, Kenika and Carole Hamnett-Sadler, our HR manager, completing the 5k course at Heaton Park, the pair raising £300 between them.
For Carole, May's race marked more than 20 years since she started entering the Cancer Research UK fundraiser, over which time she's raised an incredible total of £9,000.
Another regular fundraiser on the HPP calendar first started by Carole and now run by Kenika is Wear It Pink for Breast Cancer Now, the UK's largest breast cancer charity.
This was our 10th year of wearing something pink to help fund research into breast cancer and our total of £336 took our donations to almost £3,500 over that time.
In between, we were proud and pleased to support two great organisations making big differences to countless lives in Oldham and beyond.
We donated materials to Oldham Boxing and Personal Development Centre (OBPDC) and Mahdlo Youth Zone, both registered charities, to help bring two ambitious projects to fruition.
The first was at OBPDC, which unveiled its £550,000 refurbished gym after more than three years of hard work and fundraising that has transformed its base at Victoria House on Greaves Street.
We supplied cabinets, hinges, doors and worktops to help with their project and bring the kitchen together inside the boxing centre.
Over at Mahdlo, we gave materials to help create a specially designed gaming area, complete with four TV screens, a PlayStation 5, Xbox One Series S, Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Wii, constructed following feedback from members.
All of this charitable activity, and taking part in the Race4Life, has given Kenika the fundraising/running bug, which prompted her to enter the Manchester Half Marathon.
Kenika chose to run for the MQ Mental Health charity, which funds vital research to better understand, treat, and prevent mental illness - a cause close to her own heart following her mental health struggles of the past, which she opened up about earlier this year, raising over £150.
And she's followed that by taking part in the 10k charity run around Media City at Salford Quays in aid of Pancreatic Cancer Action, the only UK charity that specifically focuses on improving pancreatic cancer survival rates through early diagnosis. We'll have more on that in the new year!
A big THANK YOU to everyone who has joined in with our charitable activities this year. Let's go again in 2026!