MACE and NICHS celebrate 10-year partnership and helping local communities

Leading local health charity, Northern Ireland Chest Heart & Stroke (NICHS), and convenience food retailer, MACE, are marking an important milestone as they enter their tenth year of working together.

Throughout this time the charity partnership has gone from strength to strength, helping support thousands of local people living with chest, heart and stroke conditions and their families.

To mark the anniversary, NICHS and MACE are delighted to reveal staff and customers from MACE stores across Northern Ireland have raised an impressive £52,000 throughout 2025. The funds were raised through a variety of fundraising events including static cycles, raffles, golf days, karaoke events, coffee mornings and in-store collections. To celebrate International Coffee Day every year, MACE donates 50p from the sale of every Frank and Honest coffee purchased in-store over a three-day period to NICHS.

The charity partnership is not solely focused on raising funds. MACE also actively supports Northern Ireland Chest Heart & Stroke’s annual blood pressure awareness campaign, which will run once again throughout May and June. The retailer does this through its social media channels, as well as in-store with posters and flyers to highlight the link between heart attacks and strokes and undetected high blood pressure to customers and staff.

MACE also works with NICHS’s Health Promotion team to give local communities the opportunity to access free, pop-up blood pressure checks in-store.

Maurice Cusack, Head of Retail Marketing for MACE said: “Raising £52,000 for Northern Ireland Chest Heart & Stroke in 2025 is a huge achievement and one we’re incredibly proud of as this year we mark 10 years of working together.

“What makes this support so special is the passion and commitment shown by our MACE retailers, colleagues and, of course, the generosity of our customers. As we look ahead, we’re excited to continue building on this partnership and supporting the life‑saving work NICHS does every day in communities right across Northern Ireland.”

Lindsay Lutton, Corporate Fundraising Co-Ordinator at NICHS added: “We are delighted to be celebrating 10 years of working with MACE – our partnership has achieved so much to date.

“We are very grateful for the ongoing generosity of MACE, their retailers, staff and customers who, over the years, have ensured that thousands of people affected by chest, heart or stroke related conditions have received the support and care that they deserve. We would like to say a huge thank you for raising this tremendous sum of money as almost 90% of our income comes from public donations. Fundraising efforts like MACE’s are vital to the work we do, and we look forward to building on this great partnership.

“MACE’s support of our blood pressure awareness campaign is fantastic. It helps us deliver our message around the importance of knowing your blood pressure numbers and the risk of heart attack and stroke associated with undetected high blood pressure to many people throughout Northern Ireland.

“Hundreds of people have been signposted to their GP after availing of the pop-up blood pressure checks in MACE stores and it is amazing to think lives have potentially been saved because of this.”