Giving Back

Cherishers

For the last three years, we have supported the Great British Expos which in turn supports and runs a Midlands-based charity Cherishers and helps showcase ambitious and forward-thinking SMEs.

Cherishers is a non-profit organisation that solely operates to provide sustainable employment and social care services to the community. These services include home care assistance, social care community services to the elderly, free social events for the lonely in Rugeley and the surrounding area and regularly feed the homeless, lonely and vulnerable through open events and a soup kitchen.

We’ve donated to Cherishers for over two years helping the team at Great British Expos raise around £50,000 through their gala dinners, sponsorship and also running auctions at their glittering events. Our MD Paul Day is an auctioneer extraordinaire who encourages guests to give generously.

Filestream has itself donated £12,000 in sponsorship to date and has gifted a free Filestream system to the organisation to ensure its compliance and also help its team to build its green credentials.

Find out more about Cherishers here – https://www.cherishers.co.uk/

Helen and Douglas House

Our MD Paul likes a challenge and by taking on a personal challenge he’s also raised £1000s for other charitable causes. Sometimes other Filestream members join him and the team always support his challenges.

In 2021 – Paul and operations director Layla Cockburn took part in an abseil to raise money for London Air Ambulance to raise funds for a heli-paid. The pair abseiled down the side of the Royal London Hospital and raised more than £1,750 between them.

In 2023 for Tommy’s, the baby charity which funds research into miscarriage, still birth and premature birth, Paul took on the challenge to climb and abseil down The Cheesegrater in London. He did this in memory of his great nephew Win. Paul lost six stones in weight through training and climbed more than 1,000 up 42 floors and raised over £2,200. He wasn’t able to abseil down the outside of the building on the day for safety reasons (a declaration of the charity, not Paul himself).

In 2024, he’s been training for the London Marathon 2025, this time for the charity Helen & Douglas House. They help terminally ill children live life to the full and they have a property which offers hospice and respite care. The charity covers several geographical areas including Wiltshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, The Cotswolds. Like many charities, funds are very hard to come by. Paul is hoping to raise £2,500 prior to running the marathon. He’s training hard ready for that amazing event in 2025.

Paul also would like to hear from any charity based along the M4 corridor which would like to offer him a challenge in 2025 and beyond – once he’s completed next year’s London Marathon. To nominate an organisation which fits please

And finally, here comes Santa

Our MD Paul Day has for over 25 years taken on the role of Father Christmas in in Berkshire where we have our HQ. He has even had his own Santa suit made ready for this. Paul took up this important role when his sister, who ran a toddler group, asked him to ‘be’ their Father Christmas.

Since then, he’s donated his time free of charge every year to community groups and charities in Berkshire, where he lives, to help them bring joy and support to families and children. His diary gets very busy with these initiatives and his special ‘role’ has helped many local organisations raise vital funds as well as spread some festive spirit.How Document Management benefits Accounting Firms