Weekender: It’s a Knockout for Shoosmiths as Birmingham St Mary’s fundraising reaches £27,000

Shoosmiths staff have raised in excess of £8,000 for Birmingham’s St Mary’s after taking on the challenge of classic 80s gameshow It’s a Knockout – bringing their annual total raised to in excess of £27,000.

Obstacle courses and equipment from the iconic BBC show were installed at Moseley Rugby Club, where Shoosmiths Birmingham staff competed against each in a number of challenges to raise vital funds for the charity, which provides care and support to local people living with life-limiting illness.

In its heyday, It’s a Knockout was watched by around 19 million people, and even the royal family starred in a one-off edition, with teams headed by the Duke and Duchess of York, Prince Edward and the Princess Royal and joined by celebrities such as Cliff Richard, John Cleese, Tom Jones and Gary Lineker.

The Shoosmiths office has already raised £8,000 by carrying out a number of office-based fundraisers for this event alone – and raised more than £22,000 over the past year, making the legal firm one of the hospice’s biggest donors as well as the leading legal supporter in the city.

Shoosmiths partner Beth McArdle heads up the office’s fundraising efforts.

“It was an absolute thrill to be holding this event in support of such a great cause. The whole office has engaged in various fundraising ventures over the past few months to reach our target and it has been lovely to see the collaboration and effort that has gone into it from triathlons to musical bingo. It has been a lot of fun and we look forward to raising even more in the future,” she said.

Charlotte Anson, corporate partnerships manager at Birmingham St Mary’s, said: “It’s not every day that you see Disney Princesses battling it out on an inflatable obstacle course, so it’s fantastic to see Shoosmiths coming up with unique and inventive ways to support the hospice.

“I’d like to thank everyone at Shoosmiths who took part in the event, as well as the wonderful supporters who cheered them on and made a donation. It costs £22,000 to run our hospice every day, so we truly rely on the generosity of local businesses – like Shoosmiths – to ensure more local people can receive expert end of life care.”