Manchester Sleepout 2018

Our solicitors took on the Manchester Sleepout challenge to help raise £1,620.

On Friday 9 November, our trainee solicitors took on the challenge of sleeping outside for one night, to raise funds and awareness to support people experiencing homelessness. All funds raised went to the Booth Centre, who aim to end homelessness in Manchester.

Hosted by Manchester Cathedral, the Sleepout highlighted some of the hardships that homeless people face every night. Over 500 people took part, sleeping outside on what turned out to be a very cold and wet night!

The Booth Centre are working hard to achieve a “home for everyone”. They believe having a place to call home is the foundation for ‘good quality of life’ and the money raised at the event will help them continue striving towards this vision. They also provide hot showers, advice, nutritious meals and activity programmes to help bring about positive change and a better future for these people.

CEO Amanda, who founded the Booth Centre over 20 years ago said “we don’t just want beds in hostels, we want everyone to have a front door that they can close, where they can feel safe.”

Our trainee solicitors, Holly and Joanna, raised a fantastic £1,620 for their efforts and the event as a whole raised over £100,000 for the Booth Centre.

Holly said, “The number of homeless people continues to rise in Manchester and we wanted to help raise awareness and show support to the wonderful work the Booth Centre do within our community. Both myself and Joanna wanted to thank everyone who supported the event and who helped us raise the fantastic amount we did. Everyone here at Myerson are looking forward to supporting the charity even further over the next 2 years as one of our chosen charities.”

You can find out more about Myerson’s chosen charities here.

Great Manchester Run 2019

On Sunday 19th May, members of staff from Myerson took on the challenge of running 10k in the Great Manchester Run to raise money for our two current charities, the Booth Centre and the Manchester and Cheshire Dogs Home.

Jordan Buckle and Holly Atkins raised a fantastic £580 for their efforts which will be split 50/50 between the charities.

The race started on Portland Street and ended on Deansgate near the Hilton Hotel. Over 30,000 people ran on the day and there was an even great number of spectators.

Collection for the Wood Street Mission

This year Myerson organised a collection for the Wood Street Mission. This is a Manchester based charity that help children and families affected by poverty. All the families they support live in the Manchester and Salford area. Many of them are supported by this charity long term as they do not have the life skills or support to enable them to change their circumstances. Others, are families who just need a bit of help temporarily because they have fallen on hard times. For example, some may have escaped situations of domestic violence, or suffered a house fire. We were really pleased to be able to help such a worthwhile charity.

Myerson Zumbathon

A large group of Myerson staff and their families recently took part in a 2 hour “Zumbathon” to raise monies for our two chosen charities – the Weekend Day Centre for Dementia Care in Stockport and the Counselling and Family Centre in Altrincham. In total, £162 was raised for our two charities.

Vicky Biggs, a Solicitor in our Commercial Litigation Department and Deputy Head of our CSR Committee, organised the event and said: “We are always looking for unique ideas to raise monies for our two charities. We were lucky enough that a former Receptionist at the firm, Amanda Hibbert, is a qualified Zumba instructor and she gave up one of her evenings to teach us some of her Zumba moves. The event was thoroughly enjoyed by all of those who took part”.

Myerson’s Litigation Team take on the Sport Relief Swimathon

On Saturday 19 March 2016, Vicky Biggs, a Solicitor in our Commercial Litigation team and Caroline Deathe, a Trainee Solicitor also in our Commercial Litigation team took part in Sport Relief’s Swimathon.

Both Vicky and Caroline successfully completed their swimming challenges. Vicky swam 2.5K in 1 hour with Caroline also completing 2.5K in 45 minutes.

Sport Relief is a biennial charity event organised by Comic Relief and BBC Sport. It brings together the worlds of support and entertainment to raise money for the most vulnerable people in both the UK and overseas. 50% of the money goes towards good causes in the UK with the 50% being spent overseas. In the last 2 years, Sport Relief cash has helped to enable:

• Over 189,000 children to attend school to get an education;
• 16,500 people to get help to improve their mental health;
• Over 734,000 children be given life-saving vaccines; and
• Funding for 23 projects that support people living with dementia.

Vicky said “the Sport Relief Swimathon was a fantastic event to take part in and I was delighted to take part to raise money for such a deserving cause. I am known in the office for my love of swimming, both in the pool and open water, but the Sport Relief Swimathon was the furthest distance I have ever swum.”

Overall, both Vicky and Caroline raised over £600 for Sport Relief.

The Colour Run Event

On Sunday 19 March 2016, St Ann’s Hospice held a Colour Run event in Wythenshawe Park to help raise awareness and funds for the charity. The Colour Run was a 5k course with different colour stations along the way where you ran through a cloud of paint. There was a Zumba warm-up which was a great way to get everyone into the spirit before starting the run. Five members of staff from Myerson took part in the event and have so far raised £165.00. A link to their Just Giving page, which is still accepting donations, is www.justgiving.com/myerson-solicitors.

Amanda Hibbert, our representative for St Ann’s Hospice and a participant in the Colour Run said, “It was a great event to be a part of and all five of us thoroughly enjoyed it. We were astounded at the amount of people there supporting such an incredible organisation. It was a fantastic way to spend the first day of spring and the International Day of Happiness.”

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who sponsored us and to the St Ann’s representatives who helped organise the event.

Pet Quiz and Valentines Raffle

Myerson has started their 2016 charity fundraising with a bang! In January, we hosted a Pet Quiz where members of staff had to guess whose pet belonged to whom and what that pet was called. It was an extremely fun activity for everybody who took part. As well as raising £84 for our chosen charities, Trafford Deaf Children’s Society and St Ann’s Hospice, we all learnt something new about our colleagues which made it very interesting.

Vicky Biggs, a solicitor in our Commercial Litigation department and designated Quiz Master said: “I had a lot of fun putting together the Pet Quiz and feel that I now know a lot more about my colleagues. The amount raised certainly kick started our 2016 charity fundraising. Further events are planned this year to raise even more for our two charities.”

In February, we hosted a Valentine’s Day Raffle in which staff members bought raffle tickets in order to win a romantic hamper. The hamper included wine, beer, bucks’s fizz, a box of chocolates, a chocolate rose, heart shaped candles, two mugs, bath salts and a ‘How well do you know your partner?’ card game. The response we had was overwhelming with the competitive side of the staff showing through as they bought multiple raffle tickets in the hope of winning the prize. We managed to raise a whopping £124 for our chosen charities with the winner being Joanne Perritt, a Partner in the Commercial Property department.

Amanda Hibbert and Janine Murphy, representatives of our two chosen charities and organisers of this event said: “Organising the hamper was great fun as we tried to make it a prize worth winning. The response we received when the tickets started being sold was more than we could have hoped for and we were extremely pleased with the outcome amount we raised. Despite the competitiveness that runs throughout the office, some were even discussing how to share the hamper with their colleagues if they won which showed how much we all value each other within the Myerson team.”

Salford 10k

On Sunday 6th September 2015, 13 runners representing Myerson took part in the Salford 10k Road Race to raise money for, The Trafford Deaf Children’s Society and St Ann’s Hospice.

The race started at Media City in Salford, with the BBC acting as host and providing facilities for the race organisers. The route took us along the edge of the Salford Quays waterfront and then over the footbridge to Trafford Park and on to Old Trafford where the route took the runners through the tunnel beneath the Sir Alex Fergusson stand. The run finished back at Media City with a large crowd of supporters cheering on the runners as they completed the last stretch of the race. All 13 runners finished having enjoyed a great day out supporting our chosen charities.

Team Myerson take on the Manchester Marathon

Former Manchester United and Manchester City football legend Denis Law lines up alongside local solicitors and meningitis charity staff to receive a cheque for over £11,000 to help fight the disease.

Denis, patron of the UK’s largest meningitis charity Meningitis Now, was joined by the charity’s founder Steve Dayman, North West regional fundraiser Becky Dodd and Richard Lloyd and Vicky Biggs of Altrincham-based solicitors Myerson, who raised the money through a team of runners successfully completing the Greater Manchester Marathon in April. The cheque presentation took place at the offices of Myerson in Regent Road, Altrincham in July 2014.

Meningitis Now founder Steve Dayman MBE, who launched the UK’s meningitis movement after losing his baby, Spencer, to the disease in 1982, said: “We’re really grateful to Denis for his support and to the Myerson team for taking on this marathon challenge. What an amazing achievement to raise so much money from it.

Without people like them, we couldn’t continue our lifesaving work to fund pioneering preventative research, raise awareness and support survivors and their families. “What happened to Isabelle sadly illustrates how quickly meningitis can strike, and the devastating consequences it can have.”