THE cost-of-living crisis is affecting all of us and volunteers are having to work extra hard to raise much-needed funds for charities.
None more so than the dedicated people supporting William’s Gift.
The Warrington-based charity was set up in March 2020 in memory of William Fenton, who was born with a rare disease that affected his bowel – total intestinal aganglionosis.
In order to survive, William was fed intravenously with total parenteral nutrition (TPN).
Sadly, William passed away in December 2019 when he was just six years old after developing complications.
The brave youngster’s parents Jane and David created William’s Gift in their son’s memory as a way of helping other families going through the same heart-breaking experiences.
They provide ‘little boxes of smiles’ to children who are in hospital for long periods of time, ensuring they had lots of interesting things to keep them busy and entertained during their stay.
‘Little bags of help’ are packages for parents whose child has been admitted to hospital and might not have basic essentials like snacks and toiletries.
William’s Gift has been put forward as the nominee for Warrington in our Cash for Charities campaign and could take home a share of £16,000.
Our parent company’s charitable arm, The Gannett Foundation, is providing £128k in cash to support local charities across the country with a £16,000 share to distribute across the north west.
For the next ten days, you are invited to collect tokens printed inside the Warrington Guardian which can then be sent to collections across the area or posted in to us.
Each token collected will be used to allocate the cash to the nominated charity – so if William’s Gift collects 50 per cent of all tokens collected it will receive 50 per cent of the £16,000.
From birthday parties and personal challenges to big sporting events and the Christmas Smile Appeal, the charity has dates in the calendar for this year and next year where people can help to raise money.
Fifteen volunteers recently took part in the London Landmarks Half Marathon and collectively they raised £10,000 which helped continue the support for children and their families in hospital.
During the Covid-19 lockdowns, fundraisers had to be creative with their ideas to bring in donations for William’s Gift.
The Faster Pasta Challenge, which involved people transferring as much pasta as they could form one bowl to another in two minutes, raised more than £1,000 for the charity.
Jane, who is also one of the charity trustees, said: “The rise in inflation has had a massive impact on the cost of goods which means we have to spend more to able to provide the same level of service as when we started two years ago.
“So, it’s more important than ever that we continue to raise as many funds as we can.
“The fundraisers that people have organised on behalf of William’s Gift have helped invaluably and it’s great to see how varied the events are.
“We’ve had people complete the Yorkshire Three Peak Challenge, run 5km and even seen head shaves and beard dyeing!
“We are immensely grateful to everyone who has supported us and continues to do so.
“Any money awarded from the Cash for Charities campaign will go towards expanding our care packages to support families in the intensive care units in the hospitals we cover.”
To get this week’s token turn to page 32 and the deadline for votes is Sunday, November 20.
You can post your tokens or drop them off at collection points which are located at the following places:
• Asda Superstore (Birchwood Shopping Centre), 1 Dewhurst Road, Birchwood, WA3 7PG
• Valli Opticians (Birchwood Shopping Centre), 1 Dewhurst Road, Birchwood, WA3 7PG
• Marks and Spencer, Gemini Retail Park, Warrington, WA5 7WG
• Asda Superstore, Westbrook Shopping Centre, Cromwell Avenue, Warrington, WA5 8UG
• Tesco Extra, Winwick Road, Warrington, WA2 7NE
• Sainsbury’s, 100 Church Street, Warrington, WA1 2TN
• Asda Superstore (Cockhedge Shopping Centre), Warrington, WA1 2QA
• Morrison’s, Greenhall’s Avenue, Warrington, WA4 6RN
• One Stop, Callands Road, Warrington, WA5 9RJ
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