St Mary’s Students Raise Money for Shooting Star Chase

On Monday 26^th January, seven past and present students from the Centre for Short Courses and CPD at St Mary’s University, Twickenham offered chair massages to the staff of Haymarket Media Group in Teddington as part of a pamper day to raise funds for charity Shooting Star Chase. Shooting Star Chase is a children’s hospice based in locally in Hampton and in Guildford. They care for babies, children and young people with life threating illnesses and look after their families too. They offer nursing, medical support, counselling, practical and emotional care. The day was organised to coincide with “Blue Monday”, the day in January when credit card bills hit the mat, the weather is miserable, New Year’s resolutions have fallen by the wayside and everyone is a bit down in the dumps. St Mary’s students, who regularly work with charities as a way to raise money whilst adding to their work experience, visited the Haymarket offices to offer free chair massages to employees. Ashleigh Ferris, part of the fundraising committee at Haymarket said, “It was a great day, and we’re really grateful for the support of the students and them giving up their time to help us raise money for charity. The day ended up raising £342.55 for Shooting Star Chase which is fantastic.” Cindy Croucher-Wright, Manager of the Centre for Short Courses and CPD at St Mary’s said, “We love to get involved in local events. Mostly we can be found massaging at local races and sporting events so it made a nice change to be somewhere warm and dry and to be involved in such a novel idea and in supporting such a fantastic local charity.”