Double dose of Goodyear kindness

Date of release: 28 April 2025

Former Goodyear factory workers have once again showed they have good hearts by making a final donation to benefit both chemotherapy patients and children receiving treatment at Wolverhampton’s New Cross Hospital.

Members of the 5/344 Transport and General Workers Union Benevolent Fund have been familiar fundraising faces at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT) over the years and have contributed a staggering £500,000.

Cyril Barrett, chair and trustee of the group of ex-workers visited the Deanesly Centre at New Cross Hospital to hand over £9,000 to fund scalp cooling caps, known as cold caps, which have been shown to reduce hair loss for patients having chemotherapy.

He told staff: “Over the years you and your teams of Doctors, Nurses and others have helped care for and support so many of our workers and our legacy has been to help you back through donations of equipment – anything we can do that will make a difference.

“A few of our members have received treatment for cancer here and the cold caps are something we wanted to be part of because we know how important they are if they can help people better cope with their cancer treatment.”

Helen Boyce, Group Manager for Oncology and Haematology, said: “This means a lot to our team because we know how much it will mean to our patients. We’re very grateful to the ex-Goodyear workers for their kindness and compassion.”

And, in typical Cyril style, he had a surprise for Paediatrics too!

There, almost £3,000 was handed over to fund two blood pressure monitors for young patients.

Kirsty Lewis, Senior Matron for Acute Children's Services, was thrilled to see the workers again and over the moon at their final donation.

“It is genuinely always so lovely to see Cyril and the ex-Goodyear members when they visit because they have been so generous to our patients over the years and it feels quite emotional that this is their last gift to us,” she said.

“The monitors will help our patients at what is a very anxious time for them awaiting diagnoses because they can use these monitors in their own homes rather than be on the ward.”

Cyril added: This is the last project and we’ve done umpteen projects. You can’t help but be impressed by the kindness, decency and care the staff provide and the dedication and professionalism of staff. It’s so important; those kind words, the smiling faces. Over the years we’ve built up trust with all the staff – to all of you, thank you for what you’ve done.”

Other contributions to the Trust, which also runs Cannock Chase Hospital and West Park Hospital have included ECG and anaesthetic machines for Theatres, wheelchair accessible exercise bikes and the transformation of rooms for young cancer patients. The fund also donated more than £50,000 for machines to help skin cancer patients in the Black Country.

The tyre factory closed in 2016, and a benevolent fund was created out of what was the workers' sick pay fund. Last summer the group wound down and marked a milestone of raising almost £3.4m in total across the charities across the West Midlands.

Amie Rogers, Fundraising and Lead Digital Engagement Officer with The RWT Charity, said: “When the members visit it feels like reuniting with family – they have become so special to us over the years and their efforts have been absolutely phenomenal.

“The final donations were a fitting end to their legacy of kindness and their motivation to give something back to their local communities via their local hospitals. We will always be grateful.”