St Ann’s Hospice has launched a new public appeal to raise the remaining £2 million needed for a new hospice building to “transform end of life care” for Greater Manchester residents.
The hospice group has today launched the ‘Build It Together’ appeal, and is urging local people to come together to help raise the final £2 million needed to build its “ambitious” £21.5 million flagship new hospice in Heald Green, Stockport – which it says will be a leading facility for end of life care in the UK.
The current hospice building is more than 150 years old, and St Ann’s says it is “outdated” and no longer fit for purpose” due to limited air-flow, small rooms with limited natural light, and narrow corridors.
The plans for the new “bright and airy” purpose-built modern facility would see it built on land adjacent to the current site, and the hospice says its “desperately needed”.
If new hospice isn’t built, palliative services in the area may be forced to close.
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“We’re hoping that the public will get behind the campaign so building work can start later in the year,” the hospice said in its appeal statement.
What a morning! Thank you to everyone who has been sharing news of our appeal, and to everyone who has donated too.
We need to raise £2million to build the new St Ann's. If you're able to support, please donate now at https://t.co/1vwKxWmOIB
Plans for the new £21.5 million hospice building include a 27-bed inpatient unit – including 21 en-suite bedrooms with access to private outdoor terraces – modern outpatient and day therapy services, dedicated bereavement and family support spaces, offices, a café that’s also open to the public, landscaped gardens, and improved car parking.
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It will also be home to the only non-university immersive healthcare training suite in the area, with integrated technology and the capacity to simulate real life scenarios.
This will allow experts from across St Ann’s to share their specialist knowledge with other organisations, and help drive excellence in palliative and end of life care both locally and nationally.
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St Ann’s Hospice has launched a public funding appeal to raise the £2 million needed to provide end of life care in Greater Manchester / Credit: St
“In Greater Manchester we’re used to doing things differently and leading the way,” explained Rachel McMillan, Chief Executive at St Ann’s Hospice.
“We’re proud that we provide world-class hospice care from right here in this amazing city, and as the needs of patients change, we need to evolve too to make sure we can continue to give them the truly personalised care that they deserve – but we simply can’t continue to care for local people in our current building.
“It is no longer fit for purpose and we’re in real danger of having to close services in the near future if we don’t complete this project.”
A new £21.5 million purpose-built modern hospice facility would be built on land adjacent to the current site / Credit: St Ann’s Hospice
She added that the hospice knows £2 million is “a big ask” for the community.
“But that same community has always been here for us – we never take that for granted, and we’re proud to have such deep roots in the areas we serve across Greater Manchester,” she concluded.
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You can make donations to St Ann’s Hospice here, or text LETSBUILDIT to 70085 to give £20 now, and also call 0161 498 3631 to speak to a member of the team.
Featured Image – St Ann’s Hospice
News
Yorkshire Tea is Manchester’s ‘favourite’ brand of teabags, according to new data
Danny Jones
The Great British debate of which teabag is best is one that will rage on for millennia, that’s just the way it is, but according to new data, it sounds like we might at least have an answer to which brand makes for Manchester’s favourite brew.
It won’t be a surprise to many of you and we can certainly confirm it on our end but the one and only Yorkshire Tea looks to have taken the cuppa crown when it comes not only to Manchester’s preferred teabag but seemingly the best-loved in Britain as a whole.
This is according to numbers pulled by local firm, TonerGiant. The Atherton-based ink and toner suppliers decided a poll around the office wasn’t enough and instead chose to turn their knowledge of the market and consumer trends into a bit of online research.
At the end of the day, tea is has got to be the most important of all the office supplies, surely?
According to the stats, Yokrshire Tea is Manchester’s favourite brand of tea bags. (Credit: Yorkshire Tea)
Using data from trusted online source Statista, which nailed down the top 25 teabag brands in the UK, each make was then ranked in relation to its average monthly searches via Google Keyword Planner to reveal that Yorkshire Tea was clearly the top dog.
With roughly 390 searches per month in Manchester alone, compared to PG Tips as the next best (260), it seems us Mancs have to concede at least one thing to our fellow Northern county: Yorkshire makes a bloody good brew.
The Roses rivalry raged for centuries but if there’s one thing that brings us together, it’s a good cuppa.
In terms of other tea brands that came in high on the leaderboard, Pukka Tea (170), Twinings (140)and Teapigs (90) made up the rest of the top five most-searched tea brands in Greater Manchester. It’s also interesting to see how those figures looked when extrapolated nationwide. Here’s the full ranking:
Rank
Tea
Average UK monthly searches
1
Yorkshire Tea
27,100
2
PG Tips
18,100
3
Pukka Tea
14,800
4
Twinings
12,100
5
Teapigs
8,100
6
Whittards Tea
6,600
7
Tetley
4,400
8
Clipper Tea
4,400
9
Lipton Tea
3,600
10
Barrys Tea
3,600
11
Thompsons Tea
1,300
12
Typhoo
1,300
13
Taylors Tea
1,300
14
M&S Tea
1,300
15
Tesco Tea
1,000
16
Tick Tock Tea
880
17
Sainsbury’s Tea
720
18
Lyons Tea
720
19
Asda Tea
590
20
Aldi Tea
590
21
Waitrose Tea
590
22
Lidl Tea
480
23
Morrisons Tea
320
24
Bewleys Tea
90
25
Cafedirect Tea
40
Few of these on here we’ve never heard of. Taste test, anyone?
While Yorkshire Tea was found to be Manchester’s and the nation’s favourite, Belfast was the only UK city where Yorkshire Tea didn’t take the top spot. Instead, it was Irish-owned Barry’s Tea that came out as their favourite – we definitely need to hold a ‘brew-off’ between the two. The Hoot, you up for it?
As for supermarket’s own-brand offerings, out of the eight options on the list, Marks and Spencers teabags were found to be the most popular, closely followed by Tesco and then Sainsbury’s.
Commenting on the findings, TonerGiant’s Stuart Deavall said: “With so many office workers opting for tea to get through the day, it’s no surprise that the UK has a day dedicated to the drink.
“In light of National Tea Day on Sunday, 21 April, our new data shows that Yorkshire Tea is the nation’s favourite, with over 27,000 Brits searching every month… We can expect many Brits to be celebrating in style this Sunday, no doubt with a mug of Yorkshire tea in hand”. Speaking of, anyone fancy a brew?…
Featured Images — Yorkshire Tea/Rumman Amin (via Unsplash)
News
Manchester palaeontologist unearths bones of what may be the largest known marine reptile
Emily Sergeant
A Manchester-based palaeontologist has unearthed the bones of what may be the largest known marine reptile.
This new identification is a crucial part of a fascinating eight-year long discovery journey.
It all started when a seasoned fossil collector named Paul de la Salle found a giant jawbone on Lilstock Beach, near Bridgewater in Somerset, back in May 2016, and then father and daughter, Justin and Ruby Reynolds from Devon, found the first pieces of a second jawbone and another giant bone while searching for fossils on the beach at Blue Anchor, also in Somerset, in May 2020.
And now, a palaeontologist at the University of Manchester (UoM) Dr Dean Lomax, has identified the fossilised remains of the second gigantic jawbone that measures more than two metres long.
Experts have identified these bones as belonging to the jaws of a new species of enormous ichthyosaur – which is a type of prehistoric marine reptile – and astonishing estimations suggest the oceanic titan would have been more than 25-metres long.
Dr Lomax has been working together with Justin and Ruby Reynolds, along with Paul de la Salle and several family members, since the father-daughter duo first contacted them about their groundbreaking discovery in 2020.
A Manchester palaeontologist has unearthed bones of what may be the largest known marine reptile / Credit: UoM
“I was amazed by Justin and Ruby’s find,” Dr Lomax commented.
“In 2018, my team and Paul de la Salle studied and described Paul’s giant jawbone, and we had hoped that one day another would come to light.”
He explained that Justin and Ruby’s new specimen was “more complete and better preserved” than the first find, and that he “became very excited” at the chance to learn more following their discovery.
As mentioned, the Manchester-based research team, led by Dr Lomax, revealed that the jaw bones belong to a new species of giant ichthyosaur that would’ve been about the size of a blue whale, and they have called the new genus and species Ichthyotitan severnensis – which means ‘giant fish lizard of the Severn’.
The bones – which represent the very last of their kind – are around 202 million years old, and date back to the end of the Triassic Period in a time known as the Rhaetian.
During this time, the gigantic ichthyosaurs swam the seas while the dinosaurs walked on land.
The University of Manchester, where Dr Dean Lomax works as a palaeontologist / Credit: UoM
Ichthyotitan is not the world’s first giant ichthyosaur, but the discoveries by Paul, and Justin and Ruby, are said to be “unique among those known to science”, as they appear roughly 13 million years after their latest geologic relatives – including Shonisaurus sikanniensis from British Columbia in Canada, and Himalayasaurus tibetensis from Tibet in China.
Speaking on the confirmation of the bones’ identification this week, Dr Lomax said: “This research has been ongoing for almost eight years.
“It is quite remarkable to think that gigantic, blue whale-sized ichthyosaurs were swimming in the oceans around what was the UK during the Triassic Period.
Emily Sergeant -
28th June 2022 
