A thriving and developing flavour and fragrance solutions company in Bury St Edmunds has put its weight behind a World War One trail in the town which is aiming to raise money for a new cardiac centre at the town’s hospital.
Treatt, which is based in Northern Way, has become the main sponsor for the trail which is set to be launched in July.
It is ploughing £10,000 into the initiative which will see 18 artistic pieces set up at various locations in the town with the trail running until Armistice Day, in November.
The works will then be auctioned off with proceeds going towards My WiSH Charity’s Every Heart Matters Appeal which is targeted to raise £500,000 to complete a new cardiac unit at the West Suffolk Hospital.
Treatt currently employs 185 people and is set to expand further this year when it moves to a new purpose-built facility on the Suffolk Business Park, on the edge of the town.
Daemmon Reeve, the company’s chief executive, said they were expecting to commence on the build of the new site in the summer with completion in late 2019.
And apart from supporting the trail it has chosen My WiSH Charity as its charity for the year and will be carrying out a 60-minute makeover of the palliative care unit at the West Suffolk in support of the hospital’s Butterfly Fund.
The trail is to commemorate the centenary of the end of World War One and is being supported by Our Bury St Edmunds, the business improvement organisation in the town, and also backed by the Royal British Legion.
Mr Reeve said: “Supporting My WiSH Charity is important to us as our profile in the town has grown over the years which is fantastic and we have the support of our staff by doing good work in the community.
“We respect the work that the team has done at the hospital and most of the people here at Treatt, either through friends and family, are going to be beneficiaries of the hospital so it makes sense for us to support it.
“It’s great for us to be involved with the charity and we hope that we can succeed with the big fundraiser for the cardiac centre.”
Richard Hope, the company’s finance officer, added: “Our staff live in Bury and we want people to be proud of Treatt and part of our role is to make the company an amazing place to work so it’s a complete win win situation for us supporting the charity and we will involve all our staff.”
Meanwhile, Sue Smith, My WiSH fundraising manager, said: “It’s fantastic to have Treatt on board with us and I’m confident we can work together in a bid to reach our target of £500,000.
“They are a wonderful company who play a major role in the community with a local workforce and I’m looking forward to their involvement with our charity.”
The appeal is aiming to raise £500,000 to help fund building a brand new cardiac diagnostic unit at the hospital.
The West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust is investing £5.2m in developing a state of the art cardiac suite but the £500,000 My WiSH Charity is hoping to raise will lead to the whole unit, which is currently fragmented on different floors, being brought together in one purpose-built centre.
If you want to support the Every Heart Matters appeal go to the website www.mywishcharity.co.uk and if you would like to donate to the appeal you can do so by going to
Justgiving.com/ehma or text EHMA17 £10 to 70070.
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