Highfield Hospital team raise £5,000 to fight homelessness

Clockwise from left: Sean Crooks, Michelle Hatton, Jo Whitehand and Helen Tomlinson

The senior management team from BMI The Highfield Hospital, Rochdale, gave up their comfortable beds to sleep out at Emirates Old Trafford, Lancashire Cricket Club, to raise funds for people who have been pulled into homelessness.

The four staff members, Sean Crooks, Michelle Hatton, Jo Whitehand and Helen Tomlinson, the Highfield Hospital team joined local business leaders from across Manchester to support the CEO sleep out charity on Monday 18 October.

The aim of the event was to try and appreciate what so many people in the UK go through every day. Collectively £47,000 was raised for local charities by all those who took part.

BMI The Highfield Hospital, part of Circle Health Group, recently launched their 'giving something back initiative': the campaign gives staff and clinicians the chance to choose a local charity to support, Circle Health Group will then match whatever is raised by the hospital.

Taking part in the sleep out also offered the opportunity for the leadership team from The Highfield Hospital to build partnerships with other businesses in Manchester, paving the way for wider collaboration to support charities and employment opportunities across the city. 

The senior management team at The Highfield Hospital are committed to working more actively with the local homeless community and are aiming to provide free health checks for homeless people in the near future.

Sean Crooks, Executive Director of BMI The Highfield Hospital, said: “If I could share one message from the event, I would say, don’t just walk past a person on the street.

"Many of us are one significant event away from being on the street ourselves. We should treat everyone with the respect and compassion we’d want if we were in that situation. 

“It was very uncomfortable, sleeping on hard ground night after night has a serious impact on a person's health. I can only imagine how scared people must feel having to go through it alone.

“We hope the money raised supports local charities to improve people’s loves and to provide a pathway to recovery for those affected by homelessness. So far, we have raised £5,355 and are well on the way to reaching our goal of £8,000.”

Michelle Hatton, Director of Clinical Services, BMI The Highfield Hospital, said: “There were almost 2,000 temporary placements made into hotels and other accommodation in Greater Manchester during the pandemic to help protect the most vulnerable in our society.

“With the hotel scheme starting to wind down as we slowly start to come out of the pandemic it is worth noting that the number of homeless people is sure to start to rise again. 

“So, by doing this sleep out we hope to raise awareness of the situation and raise some money for a worthy cause.”