Students and staff at Oxford Brookes University have helped to raise more than £25,000 for the British Heart Foundation, as part of the annual Pack for Good campaign.
Pack for Good is a campaign supported by Oxford City Council, Oxford Brookes University and the University of Oxford.
Students are encouraged to donate their unwanted items of clothing, electricals, books, shoes and other items when they move out of their accommodation at the end of the academic term, supported by the University’s residences teams. Banks are located across all our sites and residences with regular collections throughout the year.
Supporting sustainability objectives
This year, 1,818 bags of clothing were collected from Oxford Brookes between October 2020 and September 2021, raising £25,452 for the charity. This is equivalent to 14.5 tonnes of clothing diverted from landfill.
The total raised for the city of Oxford was £31,416, meaning that Oxford Brookes contributions equated to just over 80% of the city’s total fundraising.
Michele Morley, Head of Environmental Sustainability at Oxford Brookes, said: “I am so proud of the University’s contribution to the Pack for Good campaign this year, this initiative delivers funding for research and supports people living with heart disease. It also helps us to deliver our wider sustainability objectives through waste diversion, carbon savings and supporting our local communities. Thank you, to everyone that supported this initiative.”
The impact of Oxford Brookes’ efforts
The donations equate to the following:
- Ten bags fund a full day’s BHF Heart Nursing care. In one day, a Heart Nurse could care for up to six patients to help them manage their condition and prevent further hospital readmissions.
- One hundred bags could help find a cure by funding a BHF young scientist for seven days. BHF provides the salaries for around 500 post-doctoral scientists who work in research teams across the UK on projects to better understand how to diagnose, prevent, treat and cure heart disease.
- One thousand bags could help 40 young heart patients to gain independence, new skills and confidence whilst meeting other young heart patients.
Pushing through Covid-19 barriers
Despite the challenges of national lockdowns and regional restrictions, Oxford Brookes, and other universities and partners across the country, continued to collect donations from students, with the whole 2021 campaign raising a national total of £1.7m.
The British Heart Foundation is a research charity based in the UK, and funds medical research related to heart and circulatory diseases. The money that is raised for the charity funds essential research into cures and treatments.
More can be read regarding Oxford Brookes’ commitment to social responsibility on the Sustainability webpages.
