Category: News

After one of their pupils received a Milly’s Welcome Bag, Poulton St Chad’s C of E Primary School set about fundraising for us.  They held a crazy hair day which was so well supported and both teachers and pupils alike had great fun.  One teacher was even brave enough to allow his head to be shaved for our cause – over £1000 was raised by the school.  The after school club have also been busy,  holding a cake sale which raised £500 for us.  The school are also having a collection of toothbrushes, toothpaste and shower gels to donate to Milly’s Bags.  The school are aware first hand, just how vital our bags are for families during their initial time on the ward, and we would thank to thank all the pupils, staff and families for all their support and generosity.

A few weeks ago the 100th Welcome Bag was given out to this gorgeous little boy Matthew and his family.  The bag and its contents have been so useful to the whole family, they are especially thrilled with the thermometer, which is a recent addition to the bags.  When children are allowed home for a short while it is vital that parents have a thermometer to monitor their child’s temperature as any increase can be an indication of infection. These items are quite expensive at a time when parents may not be working when caring for their child, thankfully by incorporating them into the bags it is saving families a necessary expense.

Dexter is almost 21 months into his 42 month treatment plan for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia.  To celebrate hitting the halfway point, his family have decided to get Dexter’s haircut for the first time in 2 years!  Dexter’s amazing personality has helped him through the last 21 months, the drugs are working for him and his family are thrilled to have their little boy back and enjoying life.  He is has a long way to go until he rings the end of treatment bell in December 2018, and until then his journey will continue to be a roller coaster ride.  Dexter still receives daily chemo given orally by his parents along with IV chemo once a month.  He has 5 days of steroids every month and a lumber puncture every 3 months.  Because the chemo supresses Dexter’s immune system his is prone to picking up bugs and if his temperature rises above 38.5 he has to be admitted into hospital for 2 days of IV antibiotics.  We think Dexter is so brave and is doing a fantastic job, Well done Dexter – keep up the good work.

A lovely kind-hearted lady, Gemma recently turned 40, and instead of having gifts, Gemma asked all friends to attend her birthday evening empty handed, but to make a donation to Milly’s Smiles.  As you can see from the photos, a fantastic evening was had by all, and a fantastic amount of £610 was raised by Gemma and her friends.  This means so much to us at Milly’s Smiles, it allows us to continue helping new families admitted onto Ward 84, by providing our Welcome Bag to them.  The bag is continually evolving and we have recently had to increase the size of the bag as we add more items!  Without people’s kindness and generosity we would not be able to continue to do this.  We thank Gemma and everyone who donated to us, from the bottom of our hearts.

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.