Category: News

Earlier this year, we asked if anybody could help us with our mission to include a knitted rainbow elephant in our Welcome Bags.  We were overwhelmed with the response from people who were willing to donate their time and knit this lovely cute elephants for us.  We have had knitters from Eysium Community Centre knitting for us, ladies from Ribble Valley Breast Friends Group, and other kind individuals too.  The team work amongst knitters has been brilliant, there has been knitters, stuffers and sewers all working together! We love it and we love the elephants too.  Thank you to each and every person who has helped in anyway, and keep up the good work!

Wishing all the runners today at the Baxenden Fun Run lots of luck and a massive thank you for supporting Milly’s Smiles. Hope you all have a great run and we look forward to seeing all your pictures.

Our second batch of Welcome Bags arrive at RMCH. Massive thank you to everyone who continues to support us and help us to make a difference to families.

Our second consignment of bags are ready for delivery to ward 84 Royal Manchester Childrens Hospital this week. This is thanks to you all for your very kind donations and fundraising efforts. Once again 25 families of children from all over the North West of England and sometimes beyond are about to experience the earth shattering news that their child has an oncology related illness, but with your help they will know that someone somewhere is thinking about them and wishing them well

Massive well done to Graeme Thomson, he completed the Fred Whittam challenge on Sunday in very hot weather conditions. He was well supported and completed the 112 mile challenge in 9 hours and 39 minutes – Wow!

The Fred Whitton Challenge consists of a 112 mile sportive around the Lake District. The very top riders complete the route in just under six hours but eleven hours and over are not uncommon for the average Sportive rider. This is a very tough route and we are really lucky at Milly’s Smiles to have Graeme Thomson taking on this challenge and raising money for us. Wishing you lots of luck Graeme and looking forward to seeing the photos of your gruelling challenge.

Our Facebook Page has now well over a 1000 likes!  We are so happy with this, the more people who know about us the more people will be willing to help us with support and fundraising.

We have been officially recognised as an official charity and our Charity Number is 1166399.

The Welcome Bags are almost ready to go to the hospital.  We are very excited about them, a lot of hard work has gone into the whole bag.  We wanted to make sure that what we give to the families is useful and needed, whilst also providing them with some comfort items too.  We have a Celebrity from a well-known soap who has been involved in the packs and has offered their support to the charity when taking the bags to the hospital.  Watch this space for more information!

Alongside the Welcome Bags, we are also working on a Journal for all the children who are admitted onto the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, and in true Milly’s Smiles style, this will be a bespoke journal, designed by Milly’s mum.  This is still in its early stages but we will keep you  informed about its progress.

We will shortly be selling merchandise online – keep checking our page for more information.

20th March 2016 marked the first anniversary of Milly’s Bone Marrow Transplant.  In order to honour Milly’s journey through transplant, Milly’s mum has decided that on this anniversary, every year she will do something special to mark this occasion to recognise Milly’s fighting spirit and love for life.  This year she managed to persuade 3 other people to join her in running a half marathon in London, training began in November 2015 and on Sunday 20th March, Lorraine, Helen, David and Fliss completed the 13 mile run for Milly.  Now to plan for next years challenge!

Some kind hearted crazy nurses in critical care at Royal Preston Hospital are taking part in Born Survivor for Milly’s Smiles. They did this event last year and not only survived but are keen to take part again. We will be willing you on all the way guys-thank you for support us and great team name “Critical Care Smiles for Milly”.

Hoorah!  We have successfully delivered our first batch of Welcome Bags to Ward 84.  The nurses were very impressed and said the bags far exceeded their expectations.  We could not have done this without you and your support, we are very proud to know that over the next days/weeks/months and years families whose lives have been turned upside down will be given a bag full of our thoughts, in the hope that it will make a child’s journey that little bit easier.

Several local schools, including Milly’s old primary school Our Lady & St Hubert’s held a Smile for Milly Day, in remembrance of Milly’s transplant birthday.  St Augustine’s RC High School, raised a fabulous amount of £50.75 by selling a staff selfie quiz for pupils to purchase.  Great idea, we love anything with smiles. The school has also held a toothbrush and toothpaste drive in school, and year 7 pupils have been so generous in donating these items for our welcome bags.  We collected 3 full boxes from the school, which will be much appreciated by the families in hospital.

Our Lady and St Hubert’s day involved pupils taking into school items, drawings and memories of things that made them smile.  These were displayed on boards around the piano (which has been donated to the school in honour of Milly).  The day coincided with the delivery of a friendship bench to the school in remembrance of Milly, which was perfect timing indeed. St Wulstan’s RC School in Great Harwood also supported Smile for Milly Day, and again pupils spoke about things that made them smile.  Together both schools raised £600 – thank you to everyone who supported and contributed to the day.

Family and friends of Milly ran the Vitality Half Marathon in London on 20th March, which was Milly’s transplant birthday.  13.1 miles was successfully accomplished and they all managed to finish before the road sweepers arrived to clean up the roads!  An amazing day, with over £1500 raised.  Well done guys – here’s to the Manchester 10K in May!

Our fashion show was a huge success – we have raised over £1660.00.  Our compere for the evening Mrs Smith was a total hit with the audiences and had them in the palm of her hand.  Dancers and models were very beautiful and professional and put on an amazing display of dances for everyone.  A fantastic evening was had by all who came a we thank you so very much for supporting us.