Hospice Charity collaborate with Cambridge Regional College

• 27 April 2025

Collaborating with our local community, as one of our values, is at the heart of Arthur Rank Hospice Charity. So, when we had the opportunity to collaborate with Cambridge Regional College (CRC) we jumped at it.

Students studying BTEC Business at Cambridge Regional College were invited to take part in a project where they were asked to produce a marketing strategy and a leaflet for Arthur’s Shed, as part of a work experience exercise.

Arthur’s Shed is a small studio in the gardens of Arthur Rank Hospice in Cambridge. From the space volunteers run sessions on a range of topics. Sessions are wellbeing focused and are open to anyone, you don’t need a connection to the Charity and there is no criteria you need to meet, you also don’t need a referral. Children are welcome if it’s appropriate to the session.

All sessions are free, we suggest a donation of £5 per person but fundraising is not the main focus of the space. It’s main objective is to bring new people into the Hospice site, reducing some of the stigma of Hospice care.

Many people think a Hospice is only somewhere you go to die and will be a bit scary and quiet. When you enter you will realise it’s lovely, bright and friendly with lots of laughter. We hope if we can bring people into Arthur’s Shed they will see the Hospice is very warm and welcoming.

The students who took part produced some amazing results. Josh produced a marketing strategy which included:• Enhanced Digital Presence
• SEO Optimisation for website
• Community Engagement & outreach
• Website Navigation & Accessibility

Hannah Touhey, Voluntary Services Manager commented:
“We were very impressed in the quality of the work that the students produced and are very grateful to them all for taking on the task. In particular, Josh’s work really stood out to me as he’d clearly put a lot of effort and thought into it.”

Josh shared:
“I am currently in my third year of college. I have completed my level 2 BTEC business course and I have also completed the first year of level 3 BTEC business and currently on my final year of the level 3 course.

I also have an E-commerce business of my own on which I sell clothing such as modern streetwear and accessories. I manage a social media page for my business to create traffic to my site, in which I have successfully grown with organic and paid for advertisements as well as social media influencer advertisements. I have grown my social media pages (Tiktok and Instagram) to a following of 4k with great user interactions, all within a year and a half.

In the future I hope to be able to further expand my digital marketing skills and do something similar to what I currently do now. However, although I believe this to be very successful in terms of growth I also want to have a plan B in place. I want to do a degree apprenticeship after I finish college, preferably in Digital Marketing, as I believe I have acquired great independent skills in what I already do and which I have a great interest and understanding in.

Whilst I was researching your Charity, to complete my college work experience, I learnt quite a few things about Arthur Rank Hospice Charity. I have learnt that you provide compassionate care to individuals with advanced serious illnesses or life-limiting conditions. Each year you support over 3,800 patients through various services at the Hospice, the Alan Hudson Centre in Wisbech and across the community in patient’s homes.

Within the Hospice’s serene gardens is Arthur’s Shed which is a purpose-built community hub offering free workshops and talks on diverse topics such as arts and crafts, astronomy and mindfulness, which are open to everyone regardless of any prior connections to the Hospice. I also learnt about your current take on advertising in which I had given you new ideas to advance and progress in. Overall, I know that you offer a warm and welcoming service to all.

In terms of what I learnt in marketing and business whilst doing this, I find that I found more about your current position in marketing rather than marketing as a whole but I did tend to pick up some new knowledge here whilst researching your Charity. I believe the things that I picked up the most whilst doing research was SEO optimisation. I am already familiar with It, but I did pick up some new things that I did not already know about so this was a great benefit for me as well.”

Hannah concluded:

“We were very impressed with the enthusiasm and quality of the work produced by the students at CRC and we look forward to collaborating with them in the future.”

For more information about Arthur’s Shed please visit arhc.org.uk/arthursshed