Thank you for choosing Sheffield
As a member of our passionate donor community, your impact is incredible. Read on to discover how you've made a difference this year.
Before we embark on a brand new academic year, it’s a privilege to share some highlights of what we’ve achieved by coming together over the last few months. Each and every one of you has made an impact.
When you choose to support our work, you play a vital role in shaping the future. Whether that’s by supporting talented students with the potential to go far, or backing researchers on the brink of life-changing medical breakthroughs, you’re helping Sheffield do incredible things.
Thank you for believing in what we do, and making a difference together.
Hannah Jordan
Associate Director of Fundraising
Student scholarships
This year your donations to scholarships helped bridge a widening gap due to the rising cost of living.
Thanks to you, 350 undergraduate and 51 postgraduate students from low income or underrepresented backgrounds will be supported through university with a scholarship. Scholarships are their lifeline and provide the means for them to fulfil their potential and thrive at university.
Your donations really make a difference to students and their experiences while studying. They directly influence students’ academic performance, and help shape them into better people for tomorrow.
Mike Azorji
Medicine
Your donations have also supported our students through emergency grants when they needed them most. Together you raised over £126,000 for the students hardest hit by the cost-of-living crisis.
Our Student Experience Diversity and Inclusion team (SEDI) will use these funds to make life easier for those with the most to overcome.
Clubs and societies
Each year your donations benefit thousands of students taking part in different activities. Grants are used by clubs and societies to increase and encourage participation from underrepresented groups, fund vital equipment, and support involvement in national and international competitions.
This year 75 grants were made to clubs and societies ranging from Horticultural society to Women’s Cricket to Forge Radio.
Earlier this year the Pom Cheerleading society created a new ‘buy back’ scheme with an Alumni Foundation grant. Kit can be an expensive investment for students. The new scheme aims to help alleviate the financial barrier to join the club as members can now rent kit, which has been sold back to the club by previous members.
As well as offering a financial benefit, the scheme will also allow the club to become more sustainable, reducing their consumption by reusing old kit.
I would like to say a massive thank you, on behalf of every member of Pom Cheerleading for the funding we have been awarded this year. It has been a great help in increasing equality, diversity and sustainability in our club and we are forever grateful for this. We really would not be the club we are today without your help.
Megan Blackett
Pom Cheerleading
Backing our fundraising champions
This year over 450 of you took on your own challenge to raise money for our students or medical research. And over 10,000 of you chose to sponsor and donate towards their fundraising targets, helping us to raise £219,000 through community fundraising.
Jennie Stevens, Student Support Manager at the University, battled the cold, muscle pain, sleep deprivation, and much more to raise over £21,600 for scholarships for low-income students.
Successfully completing an endurance race such as The Spine as a non-elite athlete really does prove that with motivation, determination and a bit of stubbornness, we can achieve more than we think ourselves capable of. To be able to push my own limits with the support and kindness of the University of Sheffield community was a huge privilege, and an experience I will never forget.
Jennie Stevens
Community fundraiser
The next generation of researchers
Your gifts inspire our dedicated researchers to persevere and stay focused on finding new treatments for devastating diseases like Parkinson’s.
Thanks to you, Mahjabin Islam was able to take up her position as a Clinical Research Fellow at the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN).
Her research explores the gut-brain interaction in Parkinson's disease patients, with a view to identifying metabolites and/or microbes that could be targeted for new therapies.
I am very grateful to our donors. Their generosity and support has made a significant impact in advancing research and finding better treatments for Parkinson's disease and other medical conditions. Their donation has helped improve the lives of those who are affected by Parkinson's disease and their families, and help us move closer to finding a cure or at least stall the progression. Thank you for your contribution towards this important cause.
Mahjabin Islam
Clinical Research Fellow, SITRaN
Bringing us closer to life-changing medical breakthroughs
Sheffield is taking a leading role in pioneering new treatments for genetic diseases. The GTIMC (Gene Therapy Innovation and Manufacturing Centre) is at the heart of this research, accelerating the manufacture of brand new gene therapies.
The aim of this pioneering hub is to see more life-changing medicines entering clinical trials. This incredible facility, that our donor community helped to realise, is helping to rewrite the future for people living with life-altering genetic diseases.
Sebastian received gene therapy for SMA type 1. This single treatment prevented the disease progressing and his body deteriorating.
Gene therapy is lifesaving, it’s revolutionary! It’s changed our lives. It’s given my son mobility that he’d lost. The possibilities are unknown but exciting. I’m insanely proud that my university is leading this field of research - I may have left the University of Sheffield but it never left me.
Dharmisha Stezaly
Class of 2012 and mother to Sebastian, who received gene therapy for SMA type 1
A gift for generations: celebrating Michelle Webster’s legacy
Michelle Webster was a well loved teacher and friend. When she was diagnosed with cancer in 1984, she began treatment with University of Sheffield’s Professor Barry Hancock. The care and consideration in his work made a real impact on Michelle and when she tragically passed away at just 67, she wanted to pay that care forward.
Michelle left a gift in her Will to support lymphoma research at the University of Sheffield. This generous gift has been integral in supporting an innovative new project into Lymphoma Adenovirus Therapy (LATh) within the University’s ambitious cancer research strategy.
Currently treatment for lymphoma can lead to drug resistance and relapse following treatment. This project aims to develop and assess the use of oncolytic virus (OV) therapies for lymphoma, with the idea that this method will kill lymphoma cells without having a detrimental effect on healthy cells.
We’re so grateful for Michelle’s gift which will be used to support our talented scientists and the next generation of future researchers in this field. When people choose to leave a legacy to research, they’re not only investing in the present, but also in the future, ensuring that the pursuit of knowledge continues to flourish long after they're gone. Their generosity is supporting the groundbreaking discoveries we’re making and leaving an indelible mark on the future of cancer treatment.
Dr Michelle Lawson
Senior Lecturer in Bone and Cancer Biology
Driving change together
However you choose to donate, we’re incredibly grateful for your support. Over the last year, it’s been heartwarming to see so many donors come together to make regular gifts as part of the Sheffield Made community.
Today, over 1,500 people are proud to be Sheffield Made and are driving many of the innovative and important projects that make Sheffield so unique. As part of this passionate group of donors, you’re a powerful force for change — thank you.
Over the last 10 years our incredible donor community has funded 2,856 life-changing scholarships, and 6,183 emergency hardship grants. And we’ve helped our scientists carry out vital research across a number of medical projects. I’m so proud to stand together with this donor community as a member myself. Thank you for your continued commitment to driving real change.
Heather Clement
Head of Individual Giving, BA Modern Languages 2012
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