Author: Lorraine

On Friday 8 April, Milly’s Smiles were invited to an evening presentation at Shireburne, where we were presented with a cheque for £1000 which had been raised by Friends of Shireburne over the last year.  It was a great evening, we were entertained by Ribble Valley Strummers, a very talented group of Ukele players of all ages, who had the whole room clapping and singing along!  We were also give a beautiful hamper made by one of the ladies from the group, which will be auctioned off at our charity ball later in the year.  Friends of Shireburne have also taken on Milly’s Smiles for their charity for 2017.  Massive thank you to this wonderful group of people for their generosity and hard work in raising such a fantastic amount for us.

Last night was our family charity evening, held at Great Harwood Golf Club, and what a resounding success the evening proved to be.  Tickets sold out a few weeks prior to the event and there was standing room only. The room looked great, with pink and blue balloons on the tables and fairy lights adding to the exciting atmosphere.  Everyone came with the intention of having a good time, and I don’t think they were disappointed!  The evening was hosted by the Amazing Barrington Powell, who thrilled everyone with his magic tricks – how on earth did he get that £10 note into the kiwi fruit?!  There was a crazy balloon race and a mad dancing competition which was won by a crazy parent from ward 84 dressed as Woody!  There was a bottle tomobola which sold out within the first hour, and some great raffle prizes donated by some very generous businesses and friends.  We also had a beautiful rainbow bear, the winner of the bear was the person who guessed the correct name, which was Belinda, named after Milly’s Tooth Fairy.  Entertainment was also provided by Tom Muldoon, whose talent is simply amazing, he performed 4 songs which were breath taking, and his version of ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ was outstanding and an amazing tribute to Milly.  There was lots of dancing, laughter and fun had by everyone, and a fantastic amount of money was also raised.  In total £2362.72 was raised, and this will be matched by £1000 courtesy of Barclays Bank, making a final total of £3362.72. Huge thank you to everyone who attended, donated money and simply enjoyed their evening with us.

The Garden Gate Florist in Great Harwood is selling these amazing Doodlebugs, made by Fiona Ashraf.   Fiona has been hand painting these unique ‘garden pals’ for a while for family and friends.  She has always had an interest in art and craft activities, and now her three little boys are a little older Fiona now has time to get back to her hobby.

Money from the sale of these great doodlebugs is being donated to Milly’s Smiles, and they are currently flying off the shelves.  We absolutely adore them.

Retired Police Sergeant Jeanette Hickey was the winner of this prestigious award in 2016.  The award is presented annually by the GHR trust to an officer who has gone above and beyond in service to the community.  Jeanette got to choose a charity to receive a donation of £400, and she chose Milly’s Smiles, due to it being a charity close to the heart of a very good friend of Jeanette’s, Andrew Boardman.  Andrew a keen runner with Blackburn Road Runners was a strong supporter of Milly’s Smiles and sadly passed away in July last year.  Congratulations Jeanette on this amazing achievement, and thank you for choosing Milly’s Smiles.

Today we visited St Augustine’s RC High School, to speak to year 8, which is Milly’s year group.  We had been invited to talk about Milly’s charity and we also took the opportunity to show them the Welcome Bag that all new families receive when admitted onto the ward.  It was quite daunting talking to over 200 teenagers for several reasons, we were aware that all Milly’s friends were sitting in the audience and we were also highly aware that if things had been different Milly herself would have been sitting there too.  However, we were extremely well received by the staff and pupils, and the presentation seemed to go very well.  The pupils are all very keen to help support the charity, the school itself has been extremely supportive over the last 12 months, holding many fundraising activities over the school year.  The year 8 pupils are holding a toothpaste drive, where they will donate toothbrushes and toothpaste to go into our welcome bags.  This is their second toothpaste drive, the first one was held last year, and the amount of toothbrushes and toothpaste donated has kept us going until now – so thank you Year 8 for all your support, we think you are totally fabulous.

Whilst we were at the school we couldn’t waste the opportunity to get a photograph with all Milly’s school friends from her junior school, and we even got Milly on the picture too, which we absolutely love.

Milly’s last Christmas was spent on Ward 84.  By the early hours of Christmas Eve she had completed her 2nd cycle of chemotherapy, which had made her feel really unwell.  Slowly the vomiting stopped and she started to feel slightly better, and was able to look forward to Christmas. We had been visited by many celebrities who came and chatted with Milly, she particularly loved Joe Hart – she thought he smelt fantastic, and she also loved Anthony Cotton too who spent quite a while chatting to her and even coming back to have a photo with Milly’s sister too.  Just after midnight Father Christmas arrived on his mobility scooter!  Milly loved this, he came and brought a Christmas stocking for every child on the ward, it was fantastic to see Milly so happy after her having been so unwell.  Christmas morning was great with all the staff who made a fantastic effort to give all the children a great Christmas day – and they succeeded.

We wanted to do something to let the families know that we understand how tough it is in hospital at any time, but in particular at Christmas time and also wanted to let the staff know that they truly make a difference to our children every day.  We delivered 5 hampers last Friday to Ward 84 and to the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit.  There was a hamper for the families and a hamper for all the staff too, we also included a chocolate hamper which had been donated to us in the form of 20 selection boxes.  The hampers were packed full of Christmas goodies and as an extra treat we have included some rainbow meringue kisses, which look very tempting!  The hampers will be put out on Christmas Eve for everyone to enjoy.