– Staff smash target to fund thousands of hours of care for terminally ill people –

Santander staff are celebrating today with the announcement that they have raised an amazing £1 million for their 2012 charity partner, Marie Curie Cancer Care.

This significant achievement is the result of just one year of fundraising by staff and customers across the UK. It signals the end of their 2012 charity of the year partnership, which has proved to be Santander’s most successful to date – doubling the amount they first set out to raise for Marie Curie.

The money raised by Santander will fund 43,000 hours of Marie Curie home nursing care, whilst £140,000 of the total supported the development of the charity’s new hospice in the West Midlands.

Over the last year the company’s employees have baked, collected, quizzed, hiked and relayed their way to the record-breaking figure. Fundraising highlights saw staff raise £200,000 by trekking the Great Wall of China, as well as It’s A Knockout tournaments and the Santander Flame Relay [an 18-leg nationwide course], which raised £60,000 each.

Charlotte Hogg, Head of Retail Distribution and Intermediaries at Santander said: “Raising £1 million for our Marie Curie Cancer Care is a fantastic achievement; something we are tremendously proud of. Our Charity of the Year partnerships are a significant part of our support for communities, and the money that we raised in 2012 will make a real difference for terminally ill people all over the UK.”

Fabian French, Fundraising Director at Marie Curie Cancer Care, said: “Research shows that every five minutes someone in the UK dies without the care they need at the end of their life. The funds raised by our partnership with Santander will help Marie Curie Cancer Care ensure more terminally ill people get the care and support they need, in the place of their choice. I would like to thank everyone at Santander for the time and effort given to make this partnership such a success.”