Cancer Research UK partners with Retail Trust to provide shop staff with free wellbeing support

Cancer Research UK has started working with the Retail Trust to support the wellbeing of the thousands of volunteers and staff members at its 550+ UK shops.

The new partnership will give Cancer Research UK’s 2,000 shop workers and 11,000 volunteers across the country access to personalised support from the Retail Trust. This includes counselling and cognitive behavioural therapy for themselves or under-18s in their care, as well as exclusive discounts and rewards.

Julie Byard, Director of Trading at Cancer Research UK, said: “The wellbeing and health of our dedicated volunteers and shop colleagues is of the utmost importance to us and we are always thinking of ways to make Cancer Research UK a better place to volunteer and work.

“With so many people choosing to dedicate their time to our charity because of a close connection to cancer, we recognised the value of working with the Retail Trust to provide wellbeing support to all our volunteers and colleagues. We can’t wait to see the positive impact this is going to have across our charity shops.”

More than 200 organisations also work with the Retail Trust to improve the wellbeing of their people, with bp, WHSmith and Lakeland among other retailers to begin working with the retail industry charity for the first time this year.It follows research by the Retail Trust for its 2023 health of retail report which found that eight in 10 shop workers have suffered deteriorating wellbeing in the last year while half of retail employers had seen a rise in absences due to mental health issues.

Chris Brook-Carter, chief executive of the Retail Trust, said: “We help thousands of retail workers across the country look after their physical, mental and financial health and it’s fantastic to extend this support to Cancer Research UK’s brilliant team of volunteers and staff thanks to our latest partnership.“Retailers of all shapes and sizes are seeking this kind of support from the Retail Trust so they can help turn around some of the worrying wellbeing trends we’re seeing across the industry, and we’d urge even more to join us in our mission to create a healthier and happier future for the sector.”