Westerleigh Group gifts charities with much-needed funds

Around £500,000 in total is being donated to more than 100 charities and worthy organisations nationwide by the country’s largest independent owner and operator of crematoria and cemeteries.

Westerleigh Group, which runs 34 sites in the UK, has been donating money since 2010 through its metal recycling scheme.

With the consent of families, metals recovered during the cremation process are recycled and sold, and the money raised is used to support charities which work in the communities local to each of Westerleigh’s facilities.

In some cases, crematorium colleagues nominate and then decide on the organisations to support; in other cases, they donate to charities which they know have a personal connection to some of the families who have lost loved ones during the course of the past year.

Hospices, charities which provide bereavement counselling and support, and organisations which specialise in helping people with mental health difficulties are among the charities to benefit from the donations this year.

Air ambulances, local branches of national charities, foodbanks and small local charities are also among the recipients.

Roger Mclaughlan, Chief Executive Officer of the Westerleigh Group, said: “All the organisations we have donated money to do some incredible work trying to enhance and make a positive difference to the lives of people in our communities.

“It’s an honour to be able to give something back to our local communities and provide these organisations with some financial support, especially in this particularly challenging year.

“Charities which rely on income from their shops have experienced a huge drop in their income this year because they’ve not been able to open their shops during lockdown.

“Other organisations which rely so heavily on donations from people have seen their incomes drop as people have been worried about their own finances because of the pandemic, so may have not been able to donate as much as they might normally.

“Some of the recipients of this money are organisations which we’ve had long-standing relationships with and others are ones we have never donated to before.

“But they all do incredible work in the communities in and around our sites, providing vital support to local people when they need it most, and it’s an honour to be able to help them by making these donations.”