Author: Lorraine

What a fabulous couple of days we’ve had at Tesco Accrington!

We’ve spent our second weekend fundraising alongside Shania and Wendy from Tesco, this time at their Accrington store.

Friday saw us welcome our newest volunteer, Dave, who was thrown straight into the action! He embraced the occasion wholeheartedly, proudly sporting a rather fetching blue tutu which coordinated beautifully with his shirt!

The Tesco team were fantastic, with so many staff getting into the fundraising spirit and dressing up in colourful tutus. It was lovely to see everyone getting involved.

Shania and Wendy ran a tombola stall over the weekend, whilst we concentrated on finding loving forever homes for lots of our little elephants.

We even had a surprise visit from Mickey Mouse on Friday! We’re still not entirely sure where he came from, but he was very welcome!

A special mention must go to the lovely Alisha, who spent two whole days dressed as an elephant and did a superb job!

Over the two days we met so many lovely people, had lots of laughs and received an incredible amount of kindness and support.

In total, we raised just over £800, which is absolutely incredible and will make a real difference to the families we support.

A huge thank you to Tesco Accrington, to Shania and Wendy for all their hard work and enthusiasm, to Alisha, Mickey Mouse, all the fabulous Tesco staff, including Gemma, who very kindly kept us supplied with teas and coffees, and, of course, everyone who stopped to chat, bought a tombola ticket, adopted an elephant or made a donation.

We really couldn’t do what we do without such wonderful support.

Thank you for making it such a lovely weekend.

A few weeks ago I met with the Community Champions from Tesco stores at Great Harwood, Accrington, Padiham, Haslingden and Bury, as the stores had joined forces to fundraise for Milly’s Smiles for the next few months.

Each of the stores have some great fundraisers planned and we are very excited to be able to support as many of them as we can.

Last Saturday, we spent the day at Tesco Bury, with Community Champions Wendy and Shania. They had organised a brilliant tombola, which proved very popular, whilst also managing to persuade their Store Manager Steve, to brave the shave and allow hairdresser Mareka to shave off his impressive beard!

The day was brilliant, there was so much engagement from all the shoppers, many elephants found their forever home, and it was lovely to be able to raise more awareness about Milly’s Smiles. Staff in particular enjoyed cheering Steve on as more and more of his beard disappeared!

A huge thank you to Wendy and Shania for all their hard work, to Steve for being such a good sport and braving the shave, and to Mareka for kindly donating her hairdressing skills for the event.

An incredible amount of £1,057.87 was raised on the day and this will be added to the ongoing fundraising, with the final amount being announced at the end of the fundraising period.

Today we delivered another 20 Milly Bags to Ward 3B at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.

We had an extra surprise for the families on the ward, as earlier last week, we were donated some gorgeous Tropic self-care products by a lovely lady called Fran, with the help of her very generous customers.

Fran’s friend Jo received a Milly Bag when her daughter, Emilia, was undergoing cancer treatment at Alder Hey. After seeing the difference the Bag made to Jo and her family, Fran wanted to give something back to Milly’s Smiles and provide a little additional gift for other parents and carers going through such an incredibly difficult time.

Every parent currently staying on the inpatient unit received one of the beautiful gift bags, and we were also able to give them to several of the teenagers on the ward. They absolutely loved them. We also left some for the wonderful nurses who work so hard every single day.

Thank you so much, Fran. It was really lovely to see just how much your kindness was appreciated by everyone.

While we were there, we also had the absolute pleasure of meeting beautiful little Lexie, who very kindly shared some of the cake she had baked for her baby dolls with us. (Mum has kindly given us permission to share this gorgeous photograph).

While we were there, we also had the absolute pleasure of meeting beautiful little Lexie, who is currently receiving treatment on the ward. She very kindly shared some of the cake she had baked for her baby dolls with us. Her (Mum has kindly given us permission to share this gorgeous photograph of Lexie with her cake).

Thank you, Lexie, for making our visit even more special, thank you to everyone at Alder Hey, especially Louise for always making us feel so welcome, and a huge thank you to all our supporters for making each Milly Bag possible.

Today Graeme and Mark headed over to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital with 20 Milly Bags for Ward 86, bringing their stock levels back up after a particularly busy few weeks.

Just over a week ago the ward got in touch to let us know they were running very low on bags. Graeme was away on holiday, so our lovely trustee Kath very kindly stepped in and took 5 bags onto the ward for us while she was visiting her nephew, making sure there were enough to keep them going until we could arrange our usual delivery.

September often seems to be a busy time for new admissions. Children go back to school and when they seem tired or under the weather, it can so easily be put down to settling back into the new term. It is sometimes only when they don’t start to pick up that parents realise something isn’t quite right and seek further advice.

Sadly, for some families, that will be the beginning of a journey they could never have imagined.

And that is why it matters so much to us that our Milly Bags are always there.

When a family arrives on the ward, frightened, overwhelmed and completely unprepared for what is happening, we want them to find a Milly Bag waiting for them, filled with the things they don’t even know they need until they need them.

And our bag is so much more than a bag. Whilst it is filled with essentials and comforts, it’s also a hug from a complete stranger. A stranger who, at that moment in time, is someone who totally understands what that family is feeling and experiencing.

A huge thank you to everyone who continues to support us, and also to Kath for stepping in last week, and to Graeme and Mark for today’s delivery.

A huge thank you to everyone who joined us for our Milly’s Smiles Quiz Night.

The room was filled with fun and laughter, as well as plenty of singing during the music round!

Our pie and peas went down extremely well, and the raffle received incredible support.

Thanks to everyone’s generosity, the evening raised a massive £1,615.50!

Congratulations to the winning team, Tickled Pink, who retained their crown from last year and very generously donated their £50 prize back to Milly’s Smiles.

We are so grateful to our wonderful volunteers who helped everything run so smoothly, selling raffle tickets, serving the pie and peas, working in the kitchen and greeting everyone as they arrived. We simply could not have managed without them all.

A very special thank you must also go to Graeme for delivering such a fantastic quiz and keeping us all entertained throughout the evening.

Thank you to everyone who kindly donated such amazing raffle prizes, and to Tesco stores for donating the condiments!

Finally, thank you to everyone who came along, bought raffle tickets, helped behind the scenes and supported us. We hope you all enjoyed the night as much as we did!

Same time next year?!

Today I had the privilege of heading over to Leeds Children’s Hospital with Graeme, with another delivery of Milly Bags.

This delivery takes the total number of Milly Bags we have provided to families in Leeds to an incredible 490.

I don’t often get the opportunity to make our hospital deliveries myself, so when I do it always feels special. So much of my time is spent behind the scenes at Milly’s Smiles, fundraising, planning, organising, answering emails and making sure everything keeps ticking along. But days like today bring me right back to the reason we do what we do.

As always, the lovely Elaine was there to meet us with her trolley, ready to take the Bags onto the ward. She also had some fabulous handwritten feedback notes from families who have received a Milly Bag, as well as a wonderful photograph that one young boy and his family wanted to share with us.

And what a fabulous photograph it is. It is lovely to see items that we pack into every Milly Bag being used by a child they were chosen for.

Whilst we can’t change a child’s diagnosis, we know that we can provide a small amount of comfort, wrap our arms around the family and offer support with our Milly Bag. Each Bag says we see you, we understand what you are going through, and we care. We want families to know that we are thinking about them.

Thank you, Elaine, for always giving us such a lovely welcome, and to the families who took the time to share their words with us. And a particularly big thank you to one very special young man for allowing us to share his fabulous photograph.

Graeme had some lovely company on his latest trip over to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, with our longest-standing Trustee, Kath, joining him for the journey.

Together they took 20 more Milly Bags to Ward 86, ready to be given to families arriving following the devastating news that their child has cancer.

They also dropped off a box of our specially designed Journals at the Transplant Unit. These give families somewhere to document their time through transplant, recording everything from important medical information to thoughts, feelings and memories along the way.

And there was a really lovely surprise whilst they were unloading the bags…..Graeme and Kath bumped into Jemma and little Raenah!  We only recently had the privilege of meeting this beautiful family at the fundraising day held for Milly’s Smiles, so it was especially lovely for our team to see them again.

With these latest 20 bags safely at Ward 86, we have now provided an incredible 1,140 Milly Bags to families at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.

1,140 families who, at one of the most frightening and overwhelming moments of their lives, have been reminded that someone is thinking of them.

Thank you to everyone who donates, fundraises and believes in what we do, together we are so proud to be making a difference every single day.

Yesterday, another 20 Milly Bags began their journey to Ward C2 at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, bringing the total number we have delivered there to 60.

We began supporting Ward C2 with our Milly Bags last November, and whilst we may never meet the families who receive them, every bag provided is packed with love, in the hope that it not only offers practical support but also lets families know that someone, somewhere, is thinking about them and truly understands what they are going through.

We feel incredibly privileged that Milly’s Smiles can be there for these families, thank you to everyone who continues to support us and believe in what we do. Together we make a difference every single day.