Students donate items worth more than £1m to charity

STUDENTS DONATE ITEMS WORTH MORE THAN £1M TO CHARITY

• Students studying in Leeds, closely followed by Bristol, have been the most generous in terms of the value of items donated to British Heart Foundation
• Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester and London are ranked in the top 10
• Total donations have prevented more than 500 tonnes going to landfill since 2017

University students living with Unite Students, the UK’s largest provider of student accommodation, have donated items worth more than £1million to the British Heart Foundation (BHF).

Items have been collected in Unite Students’ 177 properties around the UK and then sold at local BHF shops to help fund their life-saving research over the last four years. In total, the value of all donations stands at a massive £1,005,671.

Collectively the donated items, which include designer handbags, clothes, and plasma TVs, have saved in excess of 560,000kg (more than 500 tonnes) – the equivalent of 464 family-sized cars – from being disposed of in landfill.

Students studying in Leeds and Bristol top the table in terms of the value of items donated. Those in Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester and London are in the top 10 (see full table under Notes to Editor).

Table: Top 10 UK cities ranked by value of donations from students studying there

Among those benefitting from this life-saving research is England Cricket selector James Taylor. His retirement from playing cricket, aged just 26, was triggered by an unexpected diagnosis of a rare, inherited heart condition.

James Taylor, England cricket selector, said:

“On behalf of the BHF, I would like to say a massive thank-you to Unite Students for their support to this great charity. To raise £1million is an incredible achievement and something each and every student and employee should be incredibly proud of.”

These donations were collected as part of Unite Students’ positive impact programme run in partnership with Students Organising for Sustainability (SOS-UK), the National Union of Students (NUS) sustainability charity.

Jade Monroe, Senior Engagement Manager from SOS-UK, said:

“We are really pleased to hear of the generosity of students donating items and of their desire to help others whilst benefiting the environment through diverting a large amount of waste from landfill. The aim of the Positive Impact programme is to encourage collaborative working between Unite Students’ staff and students to bring about positive change. The announcement of this milestone is a fantastic example of this happening in practice.”

Karen O’Donoghue, Head of Retail Partnerships at British Heart Foundation (BHF), said:

“We want to say a huge thank you to Unite Students. We have been truly humbled by their support; from their recent fundraising to the continual generosity of student residents in donating their quality, unwanted items to us. The coronavirus crisis has had a huge impact on the BHF’s income this year and donations such as these will be a great help in our recovery from the pandemic.”

Vicki Fry, Unite Students’ Social Impact manager, said:

“We are extremely proud of all our staff and students who have donated their unwanted items. As a result, we have raised much needed funds to help fight heart disease as well as help protect the environment by reducing the amount of waste going to landfill. We are really proud to have reached this incredible milestone.”

Notes to Editors

For further information, please contact Chris Allen on 07754 749301or email: christopher.allen@unitestudents.com

Video: including footage of James Taylor can be embed in online articles: https://youtu.be/DGz4UxkVrxY

Table: Breakdown by city ranked by value of items donated since 2017