The MERKUR Community programme provided support for 147 charities last year with the emphasis firmly on those smaller organisations which rely heavily on the impact of volunteers. 2025 continues where 2024 left off with MERKUR providing its support to the Bacta Charity Little Lifts following an introduction made at EAG Expo.

MERKUR UK has extended its ground-breaking support for smaller charitable organisations making a £2,000 donation to  Little Lifts, the charity which provides carefully curated gift boxes to individuals who are receiving treatment for breast cancer.

Each Little Lifts box is hand packed often by a volunteer who has personal experience of breast cancer treatment. Contents have a practical as well as an emotional significance and can include chilli oil to add flavour to food and compensate for the side-effects Chemotherapy treatment can have on taste, a metal free deodorant in the Radiotherapy Box as recommended by clinicians and heated eye masks to aid rest and relaxation post-surgery.

The donation, which has been made as part of the MERKUR Community programme which in 2024 provided support for 147 charities and good causes, will pay for Little Lift boxes for 30 breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy treatment  or 44 patients who are undergoing surgery or radiotherapy treatment.

MERKUR UK General Manager Sascha Blodau said: “We met with Little Lifts at EAG shortly after it was announced as one of the organisations being supported by the Bacta Charitable Trust. We are passionate and long-time supporters of the Trust and were delighted to link-up with the team at Little Lifts to learn more about the invaluable support they provide individuals through their cancer treatment.

“There’s no other charity offering this type of support specific to breast cancer patients in the UK with all of the work undertaken by a staff of eight assisted by an army of volunteers. Little Lifts matches the profile of organisations that MERKUR prefers to support and our involvement has been extremely well-received by the MERKUR UK team and our customers on the high street. So far in 2025 we have supported two organisations a week and will look to match the 147 we supported in 2024.”

In the UK, 55,000 women and 400 men are diagnosed with breast cancer every year and one in seven women will develop breast cancer during their lifetime. There are 61,000 women in the UK living with incurable breast cancer.