If you’ve ever been to The Henries or The Retas you will have purchased raffle tickets in aid of The Light Fund. This is the industrywide charity that was the brainchild of PG’s Jakki Brown back in 2004, and through widespread trade support and development by an active committee has raised over £1.1 million.
Almost £110,000 alone was raised by the industry charity throughout the last year, with 23 charities having been the ‘green light’ for a diversity of projects to help men, women and children across the world getting the go ahead for support.
Trevor Jones, chairman of The Light Fund committee (and recently retired licensing director of Danilo), commented: “It is brilliant how the UK greeting card and licensing industries have come together this year to raise so much money. The Light Fund donations are being spread across many worthwhile charitable projects, making a real difference to people’s lives.”
Everyone in the greeting card industry was urged to contact charities encouraging them to submit projects.
“It was great to see so many publishers and retailers participating – we received 140 projects, which made for a tough challenge for the committee members to each select the ten they would most like to see funded,” commented Jakki Brown, joint md of Max Publishing, which publishes PG.
The charities and projects benefitting from donations from The Light Fund as a result of the 2017 fundraising include:
- Alzheimer’s Society – to aid research to improve diagnosis of dementia
- Baby Lifeline – to buy a bilirubinometer for the community midwifery department at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust
- Bliss – to help fund volunteers, known as Bliss Champions, who are the link between parents, unit staff and Bliss services
- The Brain Tumour Charity – to continue to provide the Brainy Bag to children faced with a brain tumour diagnosis in 2018
- Bowel Cancer UK – to make a significant contribution to establishing the first Bowel Cancer UK/Royal College of Surgeons England Research Fellow
- Challenge Africa – to build a training centre and toilets for communities around Lake Victoria in Kenya.
- Children’s Brain Tumour Charity – to support the Children’s Brain Tumor Tissue Consortium.
- The Children’s Trust – to fund a new specialised bath for Jasmine House that will benefit 12 profoundly disabled children.
- Children with Cancer UK – to part-fund research into Wilms’ tumour, a cancer of the kidney mostly affecting children under five.
- Dogs for Good – to part-fund an assistance dog’s training costs to benefit an autistic child on the waiting list for an assistance dog.
- Maggie’s – to fund the facilitation of four different support groups connected to female cancer charity Maggie’s West London.
- MIND – to fund a Local Minds arts-based project (through the Creative Therapies Grant Fund) to help people live with and recover from, at times, debilitating mental health problems.
- Motor Neurone Disease Association – funding for a pilot project to provide group or 1:1 support sessions for up to 40 children affected by a family member with MND.
- Multiple Sclerosis UK – to fund a Functional Electrical Stimulus bike; a specialised exercise bike that uses electric currents to stimulate nerves
- New Horizon Youth Centre – to part-fund the Social Enterprise Project (SEP), a business training programme, to be delivered to NH clients and local unemployed young people, that will support clients to set up their own business.
- New Life Special Babies Unit – to fund a new hot cot for Queen’s College Hospital Nottingham.
- Orchid Trust – to fund awareness raising campaign for testicular, penile and prostate cancers.
- Railway Children – to help fund ‘open shelters’; open 24/7 on/near the platforms as a safe space within the community.
- Spread a Smile – to provide five separate monthly visits to seriously ill children and teenagers at The Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel over a period of five months, by a variety of magicians, singers, fairies, face painters & art workshops.
- St. George’s Hospital Charity – to The Children’s Appeal aims to transform the health and wellbeing of children and young people.
- Variety the Children’s Charity – to fund a playhouse, interactive waterfall and LEGO base plates, to create a sensory space that would provide a calming and relaxed environment for the children after a day at school.
- WaterHarvest – to fund 14 family roof-rainwater systems in a village in India to capture safer rainwater for drinking and ensure sustainable drinking water at home, improve children’s health, set girls free to attend school, and enable people to break the cycle of disadvantage.
- Whizz-Kidz – to provide a bespoke powered wheelchair for one young person.
