Regional businesses Turn It Purple for Weston Park Cancer Charity!

Last week buildings and landmarks across the region lit up in purple to spread awareness of Weston Park Cancer Charity’s work, to mark World Cancer Day.

Although we’re based in Sheffield, our services are available to anyone in South Yorkshire, Bassetlaw and North Derbyshire who has been impacted by cancer.

By turning purple, regional venues helped to spread the word about the financial, emotional, and practical support we can provide to individuals and families. They also shone a light on the funding we provide for sector-leading research and treatment enhancements.

Participating organisations included:

• Meadowhall
• Utilita Arena
• Sheffield City Hall
• Sheffield Train Station
• Weston Park Cancer Centre
• Cutlers’ Hall
• Barnsley Town Hall
• The OEC
• Casa Hotel
• Gripple
• Doncaster Racecourse
• Barnsley FC
• Locke Park Tower, Barnsley
• Strafford Arms
• SYMCA

It wasn’t just buildings turning purple across the region. Many local businesses and organisations got creative with their involvement in Turn It Purple 2026:

• Elements of Barnsley – hosted a ‘Blow Dry Day’ to collect donations
• Wigfield Farm, Barnsley – sold cakes in their café to raise money
• Heritage Goalkeeping, Wild Ant Cricket and Elsecar Cricket Club – turned their logos purple
• Your Space Hoyland – the team wore Weston Park t-shirts and collected donations; some visitors even swam in purple wigs!
• The Tractor Lads Around Penistone – adorned their tractors and vehicles with purple decorations and balloons
• Sheffield Steelers Lacrosse – wore purple to their training games
• Sheffield Steelers – warmed up in purple jerseys at their game on Sunday 8th February
• North Notts College – hosted a bake sale and face painting workshop to fundraise, along with covering six staff members in purple slime!
• Chesterfield College - turned the campus purple, along with doing purple gel nails, a purple picnic, a purple video booth, purple artworks and more
• Barnsley College – donated takings from their Reloved Boutique and held a ‘Purple Parade’ selling raffle tickets - covering over 20,000 steps across the day! Staff and students wore purple clothes, as well as various bake sales, crafts, and other fundraisers
• Dearne Valley College – fundraised through bake sales, karaoke, fancy dress, sponge throwing, a tombola, a ‘name the bear’, photography competitions and even car valets
• Rotherham College – hosted a cake sale, arts and crafts, face painting and more
• Doncaster College - wore purple, hosted a raffle/tombola, collected donations and had a purple message wall to write messages of support
• Harrison College - staff and students wore purple and made donations
• Barnsley Metrodome – turned their swimming pool purple!

Meadowhall, which has chosen Weston Park Cancer Charity as its 2026 Charity of the Year, hosted a packed schedule of activity for Turn It Purple day.

More than 30 volunteers, including representatives from GXO Logistics, Pricecheck, Aviva and Gripple, engaged with members of the public throughout the afternoon, spreading awareness about our work.

Meanwhile, team members from Rotherham Hospice and Cancer Alliance hosted a Weston Park Cancer Charity couch area, giving people the opportunity to take a seat, ask questions and discuss any cancer concerns they had.

Then, as evening fell, the shopping centre’s iconic purple domes lit up in a brilliant purple glow.

On the day, we also celebrated one of our longest serving volunteers, Maggie, who is 85 years old. She was taken on a shopping experience with fashion influencer Laura Summers, who bought her a special purple outfit with a £200 gift voucher – kindly provided by Meadowhall.

Bekah Anstey, Senior Corporate Partnership Manager at Weston Park Cancer Charity, said:

“We’d like to say a huge thank you to all of the venues and organisations which took part in Turn It Purple day!

“With one in two of us set to face cancer, it’s so important that we get the word out about our services. Awareness days like these mean we can help even more people in our region to live well – with and beyond cancer.”

To find out more about Weston Park Cancer Charity’s support services, head to westonpark.org.uk/providing-support