Kendal businessman gives charity £160,000 boost in memory of his father (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Kendal businessman gives charity £160,000 boost in memory of his father

10:58am Tuesday 11th September 2012 in News By Rachel Ryan

A Kendal businessman moved by the work of a local charity which helped his cancer-stricken father has donated £160,000 of state-of-the-art equipment to help the cause.

Shane Tickell, chief executive of IMS MAXIMS, has given CancerCare a new electronic records system, software services and support to help the charity to continue supporting local families affected by cancer.

Shane’s family received help and support from the charity when his father Bob was diagnosed with the disease in the 1990s.

Mr Tickell died in 1996 but the charity left a lasting impression on the family for the help it had given them in dealing with the trauma of living with a terminal illness and losing someone close.

The charity helped Mr Tickell’s widow Norrie when he died and, following her death two years ago, Shane wanted to give something back to the charity.

CancerCare chose IMS MAXIMS as the preferred bidder when it was seeking a new and modern IT system, and once the contract was secured Mr Tickell decided to give the charity the goods for free.

Shane said: “This is a flagship charity doing remarkable work that should be a model for the entire country.

“I am only grateful that I can make this donation as a token of my appreciation for the support that CancerCare provided for my father, my mother, me and my family during a stressful and emotional time.”

CancerCare has two main centres in Lancaster and Kendal and offers everything from therapeutic massage and aromatherapy, through to friendship groups and bereavement support.

Lynne Stafford, CancerCare chief executive, said: “It’s essential that a charity like ours can deliver services with efficiency and effectiveness. The IMS MAXIMS solution will help us do exactly that, bringing our administration right up to date with a top-class modern system of exactly the kind we needed. It’s allowing us to replace paper-based records with electronic ones that are fast, accurate and easy to use.”