A Manchester charity which helps to save and improve the lives of sick children has received a boost of more than £12,000 from accounting and business advisory firm HURST.

MedEquip4Kids, which provides hospitals and community health teams with paediatric medical equipment and facilities not available from limited NHS resources, was HURST’s charity of the year for 2018.

Staff raised a total of £12,250 and their efforts have helped fund an upgrade to the children’s emergency department at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport, including colourful new seating to brighten the waiting area and new equipment to diagnose and assess patients’ conditions.

HURST’s donation has also funded additional resources for children and adolescent mental health teams, including reference books for parents, picture books for children, stress toys and games and diagnostic kits.

Ghazala Baig, chief executive of MedEquip4Kids, said: “We are so grateful to the team at HURST for their enthusiastic fundraising. They were a pleasure to work with and the commitment they show for supporting local charities is inspiring.”

Among the activities undertaken by HURST staff were the Three Peaks Challenge, a ‘dress up as a kid’ day, cake sales, car washing and valeting, and the firm’s annual corporate football tournament.

HURST chief executive Tim Potter, said: “Knowing that the money we’ve raised helps to improve the level of care which children receive locally is really fantastic. We’re so grateful to everyone who has helped us raise this phenomenal amount.”

Business advisory firm KPMG has bolstered its financial services audit practice with the appointment of Tom Tyler as a partner in Manchester.

Based at the firm’s St Peter’s Square office, Tom will use more than fifteen years’ experience to further strengthen KPMG’s audit offering to the insurance sector, with a particular focus on the growing North West market.

Tom joins from PwC, where he specialised in delivering external audits and assurance to highly regulated financial services businesses.

Tom’s arrival follows the appointment of partners Richard Little and Simon Ryder as joint heads of KPMG’s financial services practice in the UK regions in October. It also follows several other senior appointments for the firm at the tail end of 2018, including the promotion of five Manchester directors to partner and the appointment of new leads for KPMG’s North West technology, forensics, enterprise and value creation practices.

Tom Tyler said: “It’s an exciting time to join KPMG’s financial services team. The market in the North West is growing, underpinned by an innovative community of businesses setting out their stall in a challenging, crowded sector that’s traditionally associated with London. The region’s insurers are no exception, with new technology, changing demographics and the impact of expanding regulation presenting challenges and opportunities in equal measure. I look forward to working closely with companies as they navigate this environment.”

Nicola Quayle, office senior partner at KPMG in Manchester, added: “I’m confident Tom will make an excellent addition to the KPMG partnership and our growing team in St Peter’s Square. His experience working with the insurance and wider financial services sector, both in the North West and across the UK, will further expand the depth of specialist knowledge we have at our disposal in Manchester.”

GBM Digital Technologies, nationwide provider of IT services and solutions for businesses and schools, has recently invested over £100,000 into the launch of an online offering for its existing retail store, Sync.

For the last 25 years, GBM Digital Technologies has been helping businesses to increase productivity and reduce business costs through the implementation of the latest technology.

GBM Digital Technologies decided to expand on its foundations by launching its retail offering to bring its technology expertise to more people than ever before. GBM Digital Technologies is an Apple Authorised Reseller, Apple Authorised Service Provider, Apple Authorised Training Centre and Apple Solution Expert for Education, which means it is accredited by Apple themselves to sell its products and services.

Although Sync was only launched last March in Manchester, GBM Digital Technologies, which has twice been featured in the Tech Track Top 100 Fastest Growing Companies in the UK, has already invested more than £500,000 into the retail offering.

Sync is also continually looking at ways it can innovate and evolve.

Both Sync and GBM Digital Technologies have been born and grown out of Greater Manchester, a city that was recently announced as the UK’s tech capital outside of London, and fittingly, Manchester was also the birthplace of modern computing.

Chris Costello, Director of Sync and GBM Digital Technologies, said: “For the last 25 years, we’ve been transforming businesses with technology to improve productivity and reduce their business costs.

“To really enhance our services, we knew we needed to give everyone the chance to access tech, not just business owners. The result is the launch of a fully accessible e-commerce website, which allows us to take Sync to the next stage by communicating and providing services and products directly to a UK audience.”