Lancaster charity apprentice aiming to boost colleagues’ lockdown well-being with innovative 'health and happiness' project.

Holly Salisbury has been with CancerCare for around 12 months, joining as part of her Higher Apprenticeship at Level 4 in Business and Professional Administration from Lancaster and Morecambe College.

Over the last year, Holly, who lives in Heysham, has proved to be a great asset for the charity with her willingness to get involved and throw herself wholeheartedly into any challenge that comes her way.

Part of her course requires her to gain experience of event management, so Holly came up with a brilliant scheme to help boost workers' mental wellbeing during the latest lockdown.

Her Health and Happiness Challenge is a six-week campaign designed to get colleagues active and engaging with each other at a time when many are working from home and unable to have the usual day-to-day contact.

Holly said:” "It's important to be kind to your mind and take time to look after your mental health. The aim is to get people active, interacting with other staff members and having fun. Taking part in this challenge will hopefully give them that little motivational boost to start making small, positive changes to their daily routines."

At the beginning of the challenge, Holly put everyone into teams and at the start of each week, they are given either a group or an individual task to complete over the following seven days. The first week was a physical challenge requiring teams to get out and about and complete a collective 25 mile target while in week two everyone was set an individual goal of climbing 22 flights of stairs and dressing their workstation for a “guess the desk” quiz.

She is keeping track of everyone’s progress via special WhatsApp groups which has seen everyone posting fun photos and encouraging each other.

Holly said: “I did a lot of planning for the event to make sure everything was organized and that I was setting just the right challenges for staff. I am loving every minute of it. It feels like colleagues are really engaging with each other and I'm enjoying seeing everyone's competitive side! Being able to make an impact on their well-being is a very rewarding feeling.”

This is National Apprenticeships Week which aims to shine a light on the amazing work being done by apprentices and employers across the country.

Chief Executive Alison Stainthorpe said: “I’ve been so impressed with Holly’s work on this event and it has also been fantastic to see how she has grown in confidence and emerged as an indispensable part of the team as her apprenticeship has progressed.

“Holly has put a lot of thought into the project and it has really paid off. Staff are enjoying taking part and, while our centres are temporarily closed, it has enabled them regain that “family” feeling we are so proud to have at CancerCare. Well done Holly!”

Holly’s tutor Sue Nutter said: “Holly has shown great dedication in developing her skills and knowledge in business and administration and despite the pandemic, has thrown herself into supported online learning with the College. She is now applying this to her work tasks with great enthusiasm; she is a joy to work with.”