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Chrismas Lunch Fundraiser a huge success!

Last December Innov8 Development Solutions, Manchester held a charity fundraiser for Milly’s Smiles, and we were lucky enough to have been invited to attend.
The event took place at the Kimpton Clocktower Hotel in Manchester, and was attended by over 90 companies.
Guests were greeted by a lovely singer Daisy Kate who donated her time for free, and was an absolute joy to listen to.
During the meal the entertainment was provided by Anita Ryan and Richard Sanderson, Richard’s fiddle playing was second to none and Anita compared the whole afternoon as well as entertaining everyone with her beautiful singing voice.
Before the raffle and the charity auction I spoke about Milly, her journey and explained how the charity was set up and the impact our Milly Bags make to families.
Milly’s Smiles was chosen by one of the directors of INNOV8, Carl. His daughter received a Milly Bag after she was admitted onto Ward 84. Thankfully she is now in remission and doing really well.
The whole afternoon was a resounding success, and the auction and raffle raised an amount far beyond what we could have imagined.
A huge thank you to INNOV8, and Zen Consultancy for supporting us and organising a wonderful event. £15,000.00 was raised for Milly’s Smiles – this is absolutely amazing for us and will provide 107 Milly Bags, which enough to support one of our hospitals for a year. Truly wonderful.

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Volunteers Needed!

Do you have any spare time on your hands during the week?

Would you love to give something back to your local community?

If so, then Milly’s Smiles would love to hear from you….

Over the course of the coming months we will be in our local supermarkets raising awareness of our work supporting children and their families who have been newly diagnosed with cancer.

We are looking for volunteers to join us. If you have any free time on either a Monday, Wednesday or Friday and would like to volunteer your time for a local children’s cancer charity we would love to meet with you.

You can contact us via email at hello@millyssmiles.org to register your interest.

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Graeme joins Milly’s Smiles delivery team and heads over to Leeds Children’s Hospital.

We have a new volunteer recently join our team. The very lovely Graeme has joined Milly’s Smiles as our unit caretaker and delivery driver. Graeme has already made a huge impact in sprucing up the all offices in the unit, whilst also finding time to join David and Vicky on a Milly Bag delivery run across the Pennines.

Graeme and team safely arrived onto Ward L31 at Leeds Children’s Hospital last month, with an additional 21 Milly Bags. This takes the total number of families supported by Milly’s Smiles to 170. A great job was done by the team and Graeme also managed to introduce himself to the nursing team as well.

Welcome Graeme and massive thank you to our great delivery team who always do such a wonderful job.

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First delivery of 2022 to Ward 86

23 Milly Bags to Ward 86

Our delivery team were out in full force yesterday to make their first delivery of the new year. They headed over to The Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital to deliver 23 Milly Bags to Ward 86 (formally Ward 84).

This takes our total to 690 Milly Bags since we started our deliveries in 2016. Thats 690 families that we have supported when their child was newly diagnosed with a cancer related illness.

Whilst we never expect any feedback from families, we do receive some very lovely messages about how much their Milly Bag has helped them, during a very difficult and emotional time.

A huge shout out to our delivery team who are back on top form after David has been recovering from a hip replacement. We have missed them and are very happy to have them back with us.

Thank you as always to everyone who continues to believe in us and support us with fundraising, donations, toilettries and their time. Because of everyone’s support we can continue to make a difference every single day.

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Castle Park School 100K Relay raises £2074.00!

Last year we received some tremendous support from Castle Park School in Kendal. They held a fundraiser for Milly’s Smiles after one of the teachers son’s was diagnosed with cancer and received a Milly Bag.
Mum Alice told us that Albert absolutely loves his bag and insisits on taking it with him every time he visits the hospital.
To raise money ten members of staff ran a 10K course in paired relays, over 1 day, which totalled 100K.
The pupils did a great job in cheering them on at various times during the day.
In addition, the children were also able to take part in fun activities themselves to raise money, these included throwing wet sponges at the teachers!
In total a wonderful £2074 was raised!
A huge thank you to all the staff and children involved, and a massive thank you to Albert and his parents for choosing Milly’s Smiles.
We send lots of love to Albert for his ongoing treatment.

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Christmas Wreath Making Afternoon for Angel Families

On Sunday we have had the pleasure of several Ward 84 (now 86) Angel families joining us at Milly’s Smiles.
We had an afternoon of Christmas Wreath Making, and by the end of the session we had produced some brilliant creations!
A huge thank you to Debbie and Roly from Ewood Florist who were brilliant teachers and made the afternoon very enjoyable.
Thank you also to everyone who joined us, it was a lovely afternoon and it was so nice to see everyone enjoying themselves.
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Last Delivery of the Year to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital

On Friday our last delivery for this year went out to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.
We had a new delivery driver who was a little camera shy but did a great job of delivering 22 Milly Bags along with selection boxes for Ward 3B.
Massive thank you to everyone for your continued support, and to everyone who has fundraised for us this year.
Together we are making a huge difference to newly diagnosed families every day.
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UK Points of Light Award Winner

Points of Light are outstanding individual volunteers – people who are making a change in their community.
Every week day the Prime Minister awards an outstanding volunteer or charity leader for their inspirational service as a ‘Point of Light’.
Today I am the 1810th Winner!
This has come as such a huge surprise, and I feel extremely humbled to be able to accept this on behalf of Milly, in recognition of the work I do with her charity.
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Thank you Class 1K at Booker Avenue Infants School

We would like to say a huge thank you to Class 1K at Booker Avenue Infants School in Liverpool.
One of the pupils Albert was recently diagnosed with leukaemia and received a Milly Bag from Ward 3B.
Albert’s mum spoke very highly of Milly’s Smiles and so a few of the mums got together to try and raise some money for us.
A raffle was organised which was very successful and raised a total amount of £1215.00.
This is truly wonderful, thank you to all the mums and children from Class 1K, you have helped us to continue making a difference every day to familes like Albert.
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Lucy’s Mammoth Litter Pick

We would like to give a huge shout out to 11 year old Lucy.
 
Lucy has been wanting to fundraise for Milly’s Smiles for some time, ever since her dad told her all about our work and how we support newly diagnosed families.
 
Coming up with an idea of what to do proved difficult for Lucy.  However, whilst out walking in Bolton, Lucy was flabbergasted to see how much litter was on the ground.
 
This gave her an idea, between half term and Christmas Lucy will complete 10 hours of litter picking around her local community all to raise money for Milly’s Smiles…..
 
‘Lucy’s Mammoth Litter Pick’.
 
Last weekend Lucy started her challenge and has completed 3 hours so far over the 2 weekends.
 
Mum Jill told me “it was very a chilly morning – we had numb fingers and faces but chatting about Milly and the charity kept Lucy going”.
 
We think this is simply awesome and wish Lucy lots of luck with the rest of her challenge.