Publish date: 2 January 2026
A heartfelt thank you to every single member of staff and our volunteers for your continued support for Mersey Cares NHS Charity. Together, we’ve achieved so much this year – from bringing projects to life to enhance the experiences of service users and staff to epic fundraising challenges and supporting the Trust with this year’s Star Awards.
As we begin a new year, here is a recap of notable achievements from 2025.
Our impact
The past 12 months have been full of meaningful projects that have made a real difference across our services. Here are just a few highlights:
• Later Life and Memory Services
We introduced an Admiral Nurses lending library and provided resources to support therapy, including fidget toys for comfort and reducing agitation.
• Children and Young People Services
From art materials to boost creativity and self esteem, to sensory items for therapy sessions, we’ve helped create positive experiences for young people.
• Transformed outdoor spaces We teamed up with corporate sponsors, staff and volunteers to transform the garden at Willow House, creating a calming sanctuary for people living with dementia, their families and staff.
• Bereavement boxes and bespoke cards We worked with the palliative care team to create a series of bespoke condolence cards to support bereaved families as well as a variety of ‘memory making’ items to support the grieving process.
• Micro-commission creates support for carers in Liverpool We funded a Carer Engagement Officer to support more than 200 carers across diverse communities, enabling 124 referrals for formal support across the Liverpool city region.
• Completion of the Mid Mersey Interoperability project evaluation We funded a Research Assistant at The Life Rooms to evaluate how social prescribing links with clinical systems, resulting in 1,610 referrals and improved care co-ordination across 15 clinical teams.
Want to know more about these projects and more? It’s all in our new Impact Report.
Want support for your service in 2026? Have you spotted a need in your service that we could help with? Get in touch at charity@merseycare.nhs.uk. We would love to work with you to make things happen!
Volunteering and fundraising - you’ve been amazing!
Our staff have gone above and beyond to raise funds for our charity this year. From half marathons, skydives, abseils, and mountain hikes to a team of jolly Santas (and Winston the dog!) taking on the Liverpool Santa Dash - your efforts have been incredible.
A huge thank you to everyone who took part and to those who donated or sponsored – your support enables us to continue vital work in mental health and community support for service users, patients, and staff.
Standout achievements
This year was full of exciting firsts for Mersey Cares including:
• Star Awards Sponsorship
We proudly supported the Trust’s Star Awards, securing corporate sponsorship and running a raffle that raised over £1,700 on the night. Thank you to everyone who attended and contributed!
• Easter Egg Appeal
Our first ever Easter Egg Appeal was a huge success, with donations from staff and local businesses ensuring children in our services had a special treat.
• Step into Summer Challenge
Teams across the Trust joined our first Step into Summer challenge, promoting physical health and wellbeing and team building while raising funds. Local businesses came on board to offer prizes for our monthly winners, and you kept your eye on your closest rivals with our weekly leaderboard. We can’t wait to bring this back in 2026!
Supporting suicide awareness and prevention
Our partnership with the Zero Suicide Alliance continues to strengthen, with new training resources launched this year funded by Mersey Cares with support from NHS Charities Together.
Social Isolation and Loneliness Training launched in May during Mental Health Awareness Week with a webinar attended by 500 people. The training has been taken 2,000 times, with feedback sharing:
• 97% felt able to talk to someone they’re worried about
• 95% would recommend the training
“Very informative… noticing small changes, like a neighbour not being in the garden anymore, can open up vital conversations.”
Read more and take the training.
Healthcare Staff Suicide Awareness Training launched in September, taken 1,400 times.
• 94% feel confident to talk to someone they’re worried about
• 96% would recommend the training
"Really well thought out. I haven’t really experienced training from this angle before it was always focused on the patient rather than each other so thank you."
Read more and take the training
Read more about our support of the Zero Suicide Alliance: Our Zero Suicide Alliance appeal :: Mersey Care Charity
Three raffles raising almost £2,500 for service projects
This year we’ve held three raffles – two with Everton memorabilia up for grabs and our Star Awards raffle held last month on the evening of the staff celebration. Thanks to your support we raised an incredible £2,482 to support upcoming projects.
We launched our Friends of Mersey Cares campaign
On International Day of Charity we launched our Friends of Mersey Cares campaign to support regular donations and help us plan ahead to do more amazing things across our communities. Find out more: Become a Friend of Mersey Cares
Microhive giving to support staff wellbeing projects
Thank you everyone who signed up this year for Microhive – our workplace giving scheme that automatically rolls down the pennies in your monthly pay to support charitable staff wellbeing initiatives. Such huge potential to support one another. Not signed up yet? Find out more and register.
Our Christmas Secret Santa appeal
Thanks to your generosity, our Christmas Appeal will one again spread some festive magic to children and young people for whom this season can be difficult. While our Amazon Wishlist is now closed, you can still donate to our Secret Santa Fund so we can support even more children. People are still donating so we will update you with a grand total of gifts shared in the New Year.
Support a child by making a donation to our Secret Santa Fund
Looking ahead to 2026
We have so much planned for the year ahead, with more exciting projects in the pipeline and initiatives to support staff.
• New fundraising event portfolio: from runs and walks to adrenaline challenges like skydives, there’s something for everyone! Take a look and register.
• Exciting ‘Power Projects’ and corporate collaborations: including the creation of a traditional pub-style space and a hairdressing salon to support dementia patients at Fern Ward, Leigh Moss Hospital.
• Fitness partnership: launching in January with The Gym Group to offer free sessions for Mersey Care staff and PT sessions across Mersey Care sites. [Link to Your Space Article]
• Further ZSA training launched: thanks to fundraising and donations we have supported ZSA with the development of new suicide awareness and prevention training focused on supporting a stranger. This will be released in early 2026.
• New projects to support service users, patients and staff: we have more exciting projects to deliver in 2026 including a series of clinician-led workshops for young carers, wellbeing packages for people entering services and for children in care and an exciting art project for Halton CYPMHS.
• Collaborations with Occupational Health and Wellbeing Service (OHWS). We will be continuing our work with OHWS to deliver events at sites across the Trust including ‘Time to Talk’ events with support from mental health first aiders and exciting initiatives such as our ongoing Mindful Origami Sessions.
Stay tuned for updates – 2026 is going to be another fantastic year.
A huge thank you! None of this would be possible without you. Your support, enthusiasm and kindness make a real difference every day, helping us to do more beyond NHS budgets. From the team at Mersey Cares, we wish you a happy, healthy new year!
