We are very excited to announce that this year our charity partner is Macmillan Cancer Support. Every year, LRB members nominate and then vote for charities we would like to partner with, and this year Macmillan won with an overwhelming 50% of the votes. While so many of the charities nominated were really worthy causes, the results of the vote show just how many people cancer can affect, and how many of us would like to make a difference.

Macmillan work not only with cancer patients, but with all those affected by it; family, carers and friends. On top of tirelessly working to support so many people, Macmillan are great advocates for equality and keen promoters of women’s causes. Many of their campaigns focus on valuable, consistent care for all, regardless of age, gender, social status, or anything else for that matter.

The aim of Macmillan to ‘ensure nobody faces cancer alone’ is definitely something that resonates with our team.

We are proud of the way our skaters support and care for each other – sometimes through tough times.

When we told Lisa Wild from Macmillan Cancer Support in Cheshire & Merseyside that they’d been chosen as our charity of the year, this is what she had to say;

“What lovely news to come back to after the Easter break! We’re really excited to have been chosen as the Liverpool Roller Birds’ charity for 2015, I have a really good feeling this will be an excellent partnership for both of us.

We’ll be at your game on 9 May to offer our support! Thanks for choosing to support Macmillan, I look forward to meeting the Roller Birds.”

Cub, our Community Outreach Officer told us:

“A number of charities were nominated by LRB league members to be considered for a Community Outreach Partnership in 2015. All of the causes were really worthwhile and, as the person liaising with these charities in the initial stages, it was tough letting the unsuccessful ones know we’d decided to go with someone else this time. I hope that we will work with many of them in the future.

Macmillan Cancer Support captured the imagination of our league members by engaging with us via social media and recognising our similar ethos and values. This includes a shared passion for health and wellbeing and the promotion of equality and inclusion.

Sadly over the years, a number of our members and have been affected by cancer. While we are all really excited going forward in this new partnership, there’s definitely some poignancy to partnering with Macmillan too. We are looking forward to making a difference in our local community; continuing to support our own members; as well as reaching out to new audiences through working with our new partner, Macmillan.”

Macmillan will have a stall at our home game on Saturday 9 May, so why not pop down to say hello, watch some great roller derby and learn a little bit more about this fantastic charity?