Category: News

What a weekend we have had at Milly’s Smiles!

Our Ball, which was sponsored by GR8 Sports was a huge success, and I think it is fair to say everyone had a fabulous time. People’s costumes were amazing, it was brilliant to see so many people embracing our Grease theme.

On arrival guests were greeted by an incredible dance performance from Halcyon Creative Kids who performed some spectacular Grease numbers and got everyone into the Grease mood!

Our host for the evening was Stephen Lowe and he was outstanding, he had the room rocking from the minute people walked in, he totally exceeded our expectations in hosting the evening for us.

We had a great DJ – Skippy Events Services, he ensured the dance floor was never empty and was absolutely brilliant, we feel very lucky to have had him for the night.

We loved every second of the night, however it was only possible because of the incredible hard work of many people.

A huge massive thank you to Lorraine 2, for all her hard work in organising the Ball, for her incredible attention to detail in ensuring absolutely everything was planned right down to the last little detail. Lorraine 2 has volunteered her time so selflessly over the last few years and has worked so hard for us, we are beyond grateful and feel very lucky to have her on our team.

Thank you also to Graeme for his hard work in putting everything together, and keeping everything running to plan, to Rick Wilson for designing all our artwork and posters, to Stephen Redfern Photography for donating his photo booth for the evening, to Ewood Florist for the beautiful flower displays, to The Cardboard Box Company for the donation of our photo signs, and finally to The Dunkenhalgh who went above and beyond on the night to ensure everything ran smoothly.

We are thrilled to have made an amazing amount of £8595.87, which will go a long way towards supporting children and their families when they are admitted into hospital following a new diagnosis of a cancer related illness.

We were recently invited to a party hosted by The Cooper Hands where they presented cheques to charities who supported their son Hughie, following his diagnosis of ALL (acute lymphoblastic lymphoma) in December of last year.

Hughie’s family have been doing some incredible challenges to raise this money, including walking all the way from Stockport to London!

We were thrilled to be one of their chosen charities and very humbled to receive a cheque for £3,000 on the night. It was especially lovely to see other wonderful charities there too, @emmieskitchen_mcr and Kidscan, who also do amazing work.

As well as receiving a cheque we were thrilled to be presented with 35 very gorgeous elephants knitted by Hughies grandma and her knitting team at Disley WI.

Thank you so much to everyone involved, we are so grateful for the donation and the elephants and the money will go towards supporting children newly diagnosed with cancer with our Milly Bags.

We send all our love to Hughie and his family with his ongoing treatment.

For our SOULS bereavement group in October we were thrilled to be joined by Steph who came along to teach up how to decorate cup cakes for Halloween! Steph brought along 30 freshly baked buns, fondant icing and buttercream icing.

The group created some fabulous creations and they definitely tasted as good as they looked.

Our groups are always fun to attend and one lady summed it up so perfectly:

“It’s a lovely way to spend a Sunday morning, typically beginning with coffee and pastries. This group offers an ideal space where it is ok to talk about your person, your grief, or absorb yourself in the craft activities, whatever you feel comfortable with. It is a good place to meet people who have a shared experience.”

We were incredibly busy last week finalising the arrangements for our Ball and for Milly’s Walk.

We have also had 2 deliveries leave the unit, tuesday Graeme headed over to The Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital with 20 more Milly Bags, and then on Wednesday we loaded up a pallet with 15 Milly Bags, ready for Nottingham Children’s Hospital.

On average we are now delivering 100 Milly Bags every 8 weeks which is around 50% more than this time last year.

We are so proud of being able to support hospitals across the country with our Milly Bags and knowing that we are making a difference at one of the worst times imaginable for parents and children really does mean the world to us.

We sent off our second pallet of Milly Bags on Wednesday and this time the destination was Kamran’s Ward at Oxford Children’s Hospital.

It makes more sense to send via pallet for many reasons but mainly cost wise, however it does come with some teething problems, but thankfully so far we have managed to overcome them all!

This is our second delivery to Oxford and we have already had some amazing feedback from families – we are truly grateful to be able to make a difference every day.

We are thrilled to be hosting a ladies Fashion Show with Afternoon Tea at Accrington Stanley Wham Stadium in the Coleys and 1968 Lounge on Saturday 1st March 2025 at 1pm.

Tickets will go on sale early January 2025 – watch this space!

Last week we had 3 lovely volunteers come to spend the day making up our Milly Bags. One of the ladies who came, Lucy, knows just how vital our bags are, as her daughter received a bag when she was admitted onto Ward 86 at The Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.

Lucy, Jess and Alice did a fantastic job, and along with packing 60 Milly Bags, they also brought donations of toiletries, baby wipes, fruit pastels and bath towels, which helps us enormously.

It is always such a pleasure to have people volunteer for a few hours with us, and we loved having them with us for the day. Thank you so much ladies, you were brilliant, it was lovely getting to know you all and thank you for helping us to make a difference to children newly diagnosed with cancer.

The bags are all set for delivery in the coming weeks.

Last month Sabden Cricket Club held their third charity golf day to support Milly’s smiles.

This year we had the lovely Lucy attending in her role as Ambassador along with her mum Carrie who has joined the team as Charity Trustee representing Milly’s smiles.

The club worked so hard to put together a fantastic day, and even the weather was kind meaning everyone could golf in the sunshine. The day concluded with some fabulous hospitality at Whalley Golf Club, and a grand total of £3,000 was raised!

The ongoing support that we receive from this club is phenomenal, they are unwavering in their commitment to Milly’s Smiles, and this means the absolute world to us. We know just how difficult it is to organise events like this, and so to do this for us year after year is amazing.

Thank you so much to everyone involved in arranging the day, to the sponsors of the event, to the players and to everyone for donating, we are so very grateful.

Earlier this year 20 year old Milly decided that she was going to run the Manchester Half Marathon in memory of her precious sister Sally.

Sally was treated for Ewings Sarcoma, on Ward 84 at The Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital for almost 4 years before she heartbreakingly passed away at the age of 14. Milly and Sally were extremely close and Milly wanted to take on this challenge in Sally’s memory.

As Milly had never run before, this was a huge challenge, training began in May and despite suffering a couple of foot injuries along the way, Milly was determined that nothing was going to stop her from taking part.

Watching Milly run this race was amazing, she was totally in control for the whole time, and she made it look so effortless and easy, despite her first run being only 6 months ago!

Milly completed the Half Marathon in just 2:15:37!

I know Milly wanted to do Sally proud and I think it is so very safe to say that Sally will be more than proud of what her sister has achieved.

Alongside this awesome achievement Milly has also raised a fantastic £1315 for Milly’s Smiles (chosen because we were Sally’s favourite charity).

Thank you so much Milly, we know how much of your heart and soul went into yesterday, you deserve all your success and more, you were absolutely outstanding.

We are thrilled to be one of the chosen charities of North Lancs Training Group for this year, and it was lovely to welcome some of their team into our unit earlier this month.

The team already have lots planned for the year and their fundraising is already underway – at their visit, we were presented with a cheque for £350, which was raised at one of their recent staff team meetings.

We are really excited to working with the such a great company and we thank all the staff for choosing us as one of their charities.