Her Campus Manchester have had the honour to ask a few of the members of CRUKSOC some questions about what they do and how their society works. After speaking to them, it’s quite clear that this is one of the most modest and hard-working societies that our university has to offer. Read on to find out how you can get involved and make a difference…
P.s. Our personal favourite quote – Malin – “Everyone who has helped us so far, and all our lovely members, and their enthusiasm, has really put the fun in fundraiser!”
Luke Hart, the founder and chairman of CRUKSOC, is studying Physics with Astrophysics at University of Manchester.
How did you first get involved in CRUCKSOC?
Luke : I saw that there weren’t any cancer helping societies, so I decided to start my own last year. It didn’t really take off at the start due to lack of keen committee members, but this year we plugged it for freshers and then it took off.
Luke : Malin became General Secretary and James Mitchell became Social Secretary and that was that.
Wow, that must have been alot of work! How many members do you have now?
Luke : We have 6 committee members and over 50 active members with 200 signed up (they help when they can) and it wasn’t really; the committee were really keen and we shared the work out well – good teamwork!
So what are your specific roles within the society?
James Mitchell : It’s my job at Social Sec to organise events within in the society, but we’re still quite a baby society, we’re quite small, so we’re trying to focus on nights like Pink Moon where we sell tickets to our members, and to people outside the society, to raise as much money for CRUK as possible!
Malin : My role as a Secretary is to organise the memberships and keep the members up to date via social platforms and email. Another aspect is contacting bigger companies and venues in order to make fundraising events possible and affordable.
James Mason : Inter Charity Secretary, basically I just contact different charities (like Roycastle Lung Cancer Foundation and other charity societies within the Uni) so we can hold fundraising events for them and get different hints and tips to help us out with the fundraising we do.
Do you have any big events coming up in the next few months?
Luke : We are planning a big busking project for March but that’s still in the works. At the end of this month, we’re going to watch a fundraising busking group from Altrincham play a gig as they’ve done very well. Then, at the end of next month, we’ve been invited to a conference at the new Cancer Research Institute in Withington to find out about the research and see the labs!
This all sounds amazing and so rewarding, do you have any personal reasons for your involvement with the society or have you always had an interest in charity work?
Luke : Yeah I’ve had personal reasons that led me to busk for cancer several times before Uni. Usual busking roped in £30, but doing it for CRUK gave me £150+ each time and then I just thought “I could do this at Uni!”
James Mitchell : I have had close friends affected by cancer, but nothing personally… I just enjoy it, and you get to do something good at the same time!
James Mason : Yeah both my grandparents were affected by cancer so after that I thought I’d start getting involved with cancer research
Malin : I have always been very passionate about cancer research. My grandpa died from lung cancer and a close friend of my sister and I got diagnosed with leukaemia at the age of 13. It was a shock for everybody but thanks to the medical treatment, she won the battle and is perfectly fine now. But this is only possible because the right treatment could be provided. This should be the case for every form of cancer. Research in this specific field of medicine will, and can, help so many people gain hope in situations that just seem like a deep pit of hopelessness. We feel that noone should be left feeling alone and entirely helpless.
What would you say is the societys main aim?
James Mitchell : We love to raise money, every penny counts! But raising awareness is very important, even though my role is more geared towards fundraising, it’s still very important!
Malin : Our main aims are exactly that, raising awareness and money for Cancer Research UK. It’s a form of spreading hope and is an incredibly rewarding feeling to be able to participate, and motivate others, in fighting against cancer, hand in hand. It had already been an amazing experience to see how positively people respond to our fundraising actions and how many are even willing to support and join us! And as cheesy as it may sound, everyone who has helped us so far, and all our lovely members, and their enthusiasm, have really put the fun in fundraiser (that’s one of my favourite puns, not the best I know, but still makes me laugh!)
James Mason : Yeah well it’s all that really, and the society’s just been formed this year, so it’s great just to be building awareness that the society exists, to try to get people involved. The more members we get, and the bigger the society is, the more we’ll be able to do.
If any readers were interested in joining the society, where would be the best place to start? Should they contact you directly or do you have a page/other contact details?
Luke : If anyone wants to join they need to sign up to www.manchesterstudentsunion.com/groups/CRUKSOC and then they’ll be added to our Facebook page and kept in the loop! However, if they want to contact me directly that is also cool!