Happy New Year!
I hope you all had a great Christmas break and for those of you who worked I hope it was not too stressful!
Well once again we have had another very successful month seeing more holidays put up for offer, families taking breaks in Devon, a sponsorship offer, a link up with Donna’s Dream House in Blackpool and much more to report.
Firstly thank you to Geoff Pring at the Buckfast Abbey for putting up the Barroso family who’s son Tyrone has leukaemia, they stayed in one of the Abbey’s self catering holiday homes. Geoff went that extra mile for the family and put a Christmas tree in the house complete with presents!! A big thank you also to Bristol Fruit Sales who provided the family with a large fruit hamper for their stay. I know the family had a great holiday.
Thank you to the Torbay Leisure Hotel Group who very kindly put up their first THHN family last week in the Carlton hotel. The Johnstone Family were our first family to be referred from the Rainbow Trust Childrens Charity, their 2-year-old daughter has leukemia. The family had a great time and made the most of the fantastic facilities the complex has to offer. You can read 11yr old Poppy’s account of their holiday by following this link https://www.thhn.co.uk/holiday-stories/johnston-family-holiday.html
We would like to thank and wish our new members Kate & Ed at the Downs Hotel in Babbacombe good luck with their first THHN Holidays starting this month and hope they find it a rewarding experience.
A big thank you to all the accommodation providers who have put new holiday dates up for offer in the New Year, without your very kind offers and support the THHN would not exist! If you have put dates up for offer and they have not been filled please do not let this deter you from offering dates in the future, the uptake of holidays is increasing and we now have more charities offering the holidays so things will improve.
We are thrilled to announce our latest new member Donna’s Dream House in Blackpool! When DDH was featured on Channel 4’s “Secret Millionaire” early last year it featured Gary Eastwood visiting DDH and it was this that inspired me to set up the THHN. How glad I am that I saw the episode! You read an article written by Rachael Olley of NACCPO about how the THHN was set up by following this link https://www.thhn.co.uk/news-and-media/When-reality-TV-makes-differen.html This now means the THHN can recommend local families with ill or bereaved children for holidays staying at DDH. I can not thank Len & Barbara Curtis enough for the link up, what a great way to start the year! Both Len and Gary will be attending the THHN ball in August as guests of honour and congratulations to Len who was awarded an MBE in the honours list.
A big thank you to Colin Matthews of Babbacombe Theatre who has very kindly offered to make a donation towards the costs of the THHN ball in August, we are still in great need of more funds for the ball, so any donation is a huge help no matter how small it may be it will all help and will be going to a great cause. All proceeds raised will be going to NACCPO (National Alliance of Childhood Cancer Parent Organisations) and Hannah Jones umberella fund of the Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust (Hannah and her family were the first family to benefit from a THHN holiday). Posters/ flyers and tickets are currently being designed and we are looking for people to help promote the event by displaying the posters and flyers. We are also looking for retail outlets to sell the tickets in their shops, which will hopefully be on sale from April onwards.
A few weeks ago I had an email from a local family who tragically lost their daughter to a very rare genetic disorder called Metachromatic Luekodystrophy (MLD). Mr & Mrs. Hooper were contacting me to offer their help with the THHN as they were very keen to get involved. While I was racking my brains for a suitable job to allocate them they called me up with an amazing offer! They had had a meeting with Torbay Council and managed to land a free Beach Hut plot with wheelchair access at Preston beach. Mr & Mrs Hooper said they would raise the funds to have the hut built, kitted out with a cooker and beach gear and maintain the hut. We have since had some very kind offers of assistance, Tim Maynard Carpentry has offered to build the hut free of charge and Jewsons of Torquay will supply the materials free of charge!! A friend of Mr & Mrs Hooper has donated £100.00 towards the costs of kitting the hut out with equipment. The Beach Hut will be up and running and in use for THHN families to use this summer and will be named after Mr & Mrs Hooper’s daughter. This will make a big difference to families holidays and will help many of them build very special memories of their time in Torbay. A huge thank you to all involved and I will keep you posted on it’s progress!
Thank you again to all of our members we are making a difference and with your kindness and generosity we will continue to do so.
Best wishes & thanks
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