Some of the pupils during the enterprise week

A Muslim Girls school has been fundraising for Royal Preston Hospital’s Rosemere Cancer Foundation.

Year 10 pupils from Tauheedul Islam Girls’ High School (TIGHS), Blackburn, have used their school’s annual Enterprise Week to set up retail business and donate profits to the foundation.

An impressive £5,309 was raised from the initial investment of £700 from the school.

Cancer Patients will now benefit from state-of-the-art robotic surgical equipment.

12 teams of 10 pupils competed against each other to raise the most money, starting with an initial investment of £50 each.

After a briefing at the start of the week, the girls matched each person to the right role such as marketing, finance, and quality control positions.

As the pupils developed and sold their products, including cake jars, American candy, mocktails, stylish wall art and candles, the start-up sum dramatically began to rise.

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Local businesses visited the school to help inspire the pupils, including Abdul Chohan, an Apple Designated Educator, and Siddiq Musa, a KPMG partner.

After taking on a Dragons Den-style contest, the girls set up stalls for students, staff and families to come and sell products to.

Bashira Patel, Director of Futures at TIGHS and coordinator of the Enterprise Week activities said: “Our Enterprise Week was an all-round fantastic experience for our pupils.

“Our pupils were enthusiastic and confident throughout the week’s activities, and developed a range of skills such as problem-solving, communication, entrepreneurship and managing budgets.

“It’s wonderful that we were able to raise such a large sum for a very deserving charity through the activity too.”

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Shaziya Ali, Year 10 pupil, said: “Enterprise Week was a unique learning experience and so much fun!

“We received a profound insight into the business world through inspirational guest speakers who are successful business men and women in our local community.

“It was particularly thought-provoking to hear their stories and to realise and recognise that many entrepreneurs have humble beginnings and the sky is our limit if we put our mind to things.

“We loved the opportunity to start our own business from scratch and see it through to a flourishing, profit-making business at the trade fair and are very proud of the donations we raised collectively as a year group for a wonderful and most worthy cause.”

Daniel Hill, Rosemere Cancer Foundation’s Head of Fundraising, said: “I was extremely impressed by the girls’ effort, determination and passion to succeed and raise as much money as possible for Rosemere.

“We are truly grateful for TIGHS’ support.

“The money raised will make a huge difference to local cancer patients for many years to come by helping to ensure the latest generation DaVinci Xi robot stays at the Rosemere Cancer Centre at Royal Preston Hospital.

“Each and every group had obviously worked extremely hard and it was difficult to choose one stand out winner, as they were all winners in my eyes.”

The Sterling was crowned the overall winner of the week.

What do you think about TIGHS fundraising efforts? Are you involved with any upcoming fundraising? Let us know in the comments below