April

Students come head to head in Marie Curie Shop Challenge

Six students at Queen’s University Belfast took part in the Marie Curie Shop Challenge against the University of Ulster and helped to raise over £3,000 for charity.

The competition saw two teams of students from each university take up the task of increasing footfall and sales of two Marie Curie branches in Belfast, with the team securing the highest percentage increase of its shop’s average takings being declared the winner. Both teams worked tirelessly in the weeks leading up to the challenge, collecting donations to stock their individual challenge Marie Curie shops and promoting the event to attract sales.

Queen’s students took over the Lisburn Road Marie Curie shop and generated a huge £832 in sales of the stock that they had sourced and £1,852 in sales overall.

Although Queen’s raised the most money, University of Ulster, which generated £211 of stock sales and £1,181 overall was declared the winner based on the percentage increase of its shop’s average takings.

Most importantly, an amazing £3,033 was raised in total by both teams, equating to over 152 hours of free nursing care to terminally ill patients in their own homes.

Local MP Dr Alasdair McDonnell and Councillor Claire Hanna both visited the shop to lend their support on the day. Alasdair McDonnell MP said, “It’s great to see our young people giving up their day to help raise funds for a worthy cause, and I want to acknowledge and thank them for all of their efforts.”

Lucia Kearney, Volunteer & Development Support Officer of Queen’s Students’ Union said, “As well as being a friendly varsity challenge, good fun, and giving students an opportunity to develop their marketing and retail skills, it’s important to remember that the proceeds raised go to the much valued Marie Curie Cancer Care services; a charity which touches the lives of so many people across Northern Ireland. I would like to thank and congratulate all the volunteers from both the University of Ulster and Queen’s!”

The students involved thank everyone who donated stock, provided moral support, or visited the branch to support them and Marie Curie Cancer Care Services on the day.

_{Image Caption: Lucia Kearney (Volunteer & Development Support Officer at Queen’s Students’ Union), Natasha Walker (Assistant Manager at Marie Curie), and Dr Alasdair McDonnell MP, with Queen’s Students Siobhan Taaffe, Jill MacAulay, Rachael Moore, and Helen Monaghan.}