Category: News

During Milly’s treatment she enrolled in the Beads of Courage Programme which is designed to provide support for children and teenagers undergoing treatments for serious illnesses.  At every stage of cancer treatment, children receive a new Bead of Courage. The beads join together to form (often long) physical representations of their recovery, resulting in a record of every hospital trip and treatment on their courageous journey. The Beads of Courage help to decrease illness-related distress, and increase positive coping strategies to support children and their families.

The Beads are also something tangible that a child can use, to tell family and friends about their experience during treatment. They also help explain what has happened to them whilst they have been in hospital.

With each procedure or milestone in their treatment, they get a special bead. Each bead is their way of saying “this isn’t easy, but I did it”.

Every child is given the Beads of Courage bead colour chart, along with a length of string and beads that spell out their first name.

Then, colourful beads, each representing a different treatment, are given to the child by their professional health care provider, as determined by the bead guide. During the course of their treatment, they are also given “Act of Courage” beads.  A few examples of these beads include:

• Yellow bead: an overnight stay in hospital
• White bead: a course of chemotherapy
• Blue bead: visits to the clinic
• Glow-in-the-dark bead: a course of radiation treatment
• Glass bead: an act of courage
• Special star bead: a special accomplishment
• Purple heart bead: completion of treatment!

Deciding what to do with Milly’s Beads of Courage was quite difficult; for the last 3 years they have been in her bedroom in the bag that we kept them in.  After copious amounts of research, I decided to have them made into a tree, and framed so that they can be displayed properly.  Milly had so many beads that they had to be made into 2 trees!

The first frame in the picture are the beads from diagnosis to post bone marrow transplant… the second frame are from the time Milly relapsed to when we lost her 💔

The third picture is the list of beads that are available for each treatment/procedure that children endure.

The final picture is Milly proudly wearing her beads after ringing the End of Treatment Bell, just before she was discharged home following her bone marrow transplant.

These beads speak so much of courage, determination and love, and chart every single step of Milly’s cancer journey- I love them and they mean the world to me, but more importantly I’m sure Milly would love them too❤️🌈🎗

Thank you to Natasha at Rainbow Trees for looking after the beads and displaying them so perfectly.

 

 

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Our Rainbow Ball 2019 was held on Saturday 16th March at Mitton Hall, Whalley and was attended by 130 beautiful people, all with the intention of having a great night whilst raising money for our fantastic charity.

The room was beautifully decorated in pink, Milly’s favourite colour, and the whole evening sparkled from start to finish.  Guests were greeted with a glass of prosecco as they were shown into the main room.  The staff were amazing, very professional but with a friendly approach, and nothing was too much trouble for them.

During the meal we were beautifully entertained by the haunting vocals of Hannah Rose, who was amazing.  We also had a table top magician who thrilled guests with his variety of magic skills.

The whole evening was compared by Dale who is the husband of one of our trustee’s and he did an outstanding job.  He reminded everyone of the reason for being there, he also spoke about the plans and aspirations of the charity. The auction was fast, brilliant and funny,  people were so generous and an awful lot of money was spent.

The remainder of the evening was spent dancing to the brilliant tracks played by  DJ Ryan Smith, and some very interested moves were seen on the dancefloor!

All in all a fabulous successful evening which was enjoyed by everyone, and a grand total of £6668.00 was raised.  Thank you to everyone who came and supported us, to everyone who donated raffle and auction prizes and to Lesley-Anne at Mitton Hall for her kindness and support in arranging such a beautiful event for us.

 

 

An event held at The Grand Venue, Clitheroe on Saturday raised £2700 for Milly’s Smiles and another fantastic charity Derian House.

The event was arranged by Lisa and Barbara Taylor, and featured a tribute act to Freddie Mercury and the talents of  2 local artists, who attend Bowland High School at Grindleton,  Meeka Bradley and Joel Taylor.  165 people attended the evening with a raffle that included prizes donated by local companies raising £565.  Audiences were thrilled by the entertainment and an amazing evening was had by all.  Thank you so much to everyone who supported the event and donated money to these 2 brilliant charities.

In Spring 2016 money raised from Milly’s Celebration of Life, along with donations received at Milly’s Smiles First Annual Walk were donated to Ronald McDonald House, to fund a room for families for 3 years. Ronald McDonald House had been a lifesaver for us, it gave us somewhere to stay, instead of having to travel to and from the hospital each day. The whole set up is fantastic, and something that as Milly’s family we wanted to support.

As Milly got closer to discharge after her transplant she was allowed over to McDonald House, and we spent a lot of hours playing games both inside and outside in the fresh air, these now are obviously very precious memories for us.

The room we sponsored was initially called The Library, it was a room we had stayed in many times, so to sponsor a room that Milly was familiar with, was very special. You are allowed to name the rooms, and we decided to call our room Milly’s Castle.

When Milly was isolated on the Bone Marrow Unit for 2 months, we decorated her room and her window and called it Milly’s Castle – so the name for McDonald House is very apt. Milly is pictured here standing outside her room and you can see the decorated window in the background, we think she would love the name.

So this year our sponsorship expires, however Milly’s Smiles want to continue to sponsor the room, we know only too well how much it is needed, and its another way that Milly lives on and helps other families. So we have sponsored the room for another 3 years and this means such a lot to us as it will do to families whose child is admitted into hospital and need somewhere to stay.

What is also very special is that the room opposite Milly’s Castle is sponsored by the family of a friend of Milly’s who was having his transplant at the same time, and he was in the room next door. We love this and I am sure they will both be happy that their rooms are together.

 

We have been lucky enough to be the charity of the year for a few organisations in 2018.  We were approached by TSB Bank, Rawtenstall who chose us after staff were asked to nominate charities. we have been supported by 5 branches of the Bank, who have fundraised tirelessly for us over 2018, Haslingden, Todmorden, Rawtenstall, Bastwell and Nelson.  To date they have raised £4633.08 – and amazingly have said they will support us for a further 12 months. TSB Bank, thank you so much we are so very grateful  to you all for taking us into your hearts and chosing us as your chosen charity for another year.

Last year we were chosen as the Charity of the Year 2018 for Arval UK (Ltd) in Salford.  Over the last 12 months staff have generously raised funds for Milly’s Smiles through a variety of ways including a Onesie Wednesday, unfortunately there was no photographic evidence of this available!

We were invited back to Arval earlier this month to collect a cheque, and were overwhelmed to see that £2540.00 has been raised, this will fund just over 18 Milly Bags.

Thank you to each and every person who has played a part in raising this fantastic amount, this allows us to continue our work in helping all families that are newly diagnosed and admitted to a children’s hospital in the North West of England.

 

After struggling for many years with health problems resulting in being overweight, Amanda made the decision to change her lifestyle, to get fit and to start enjoying life again. She started on The Couch 2 5K, going from being unable to run upstairs to training for a half marathon.  Amanda also joined the gym and took up a white collar boxing challenge which involved 2 hours training 5 times a week.  Amanda completely changed her eating habits, which, combined with all the exercise meant she was starting to feel more healthy, and taking part in many sporting events including, the East Lancs Hospice 10K, Mudder Maniacs, and Total Warrier.

Amanda ran the  Manchester Half Marathon on Sunday 14^th October 2018 and raised an amazing amount of money for Milly’s Smiles, in total £370 has been raised.

A huge thank you to Amanda for her support and massive well done on all her amazing achievements, we all think she is amazing.

 

Sunday 4th November was our 4th annual walk for Milly, the weather had been pretty poor days before, and we were more than a little concerned that we could be rained off.  However just like all the other walks the weather was more than kind to us, it was cold but the sun shone for us.  We had a fantastic turnout with lots of familiar faces returning to support us year after year, there were also new faces, in particular we had some new families from Ward 84, and we are always so honoured that they make the journey to support Milly and her charity.

The Royal were amazing hosts, Neil couldn’t do enough for us, he donated all the food and the venue and even provided fireworks for the ones who lasted till dark!

Thank you so much to each and everyone of you who came, walked, and supported us. Seeing you all there on that morning to remember Milly, was overwhelming and something that is not taken for granted.

On the day we raised a total of  £545.53 on the day, which is tremendous.

Same time next year?!

 

 

We would like to say a huge thank you to Diane & Kevin and their family and friends for all the kind donations made to Milly’s Smiles, when they recently renewed their wedding vows.

Diane heard about Milly’s Smiles when she met Milly’s dad recently, and after hearing all about Milly and how her charity helps families from all over the North West of England, when children are diagnosed with a cancer related illness, decided to ask for donations to Milly’s Smiles.

We thank every one who donated for their kind generosity, and send our Congratulations to Diane and Kevin, and wish you many more years of happiness 🙂

 

 

After months of planning, today Milly’s Smiles proudly delivered 15 Milly Bags to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.  The bags are to be given to new patients and families being admitted onto their oncology ward, after their child has been diagnosed with a cancer related illness.

We are both thrilled and humbled to be allowed to help make the journey of newly diagnosed children that little bit easier, and we know from all the amazing feed-back that we receive from our families on Ward 84 how invaluable these Milly Bags are.

It also warms our heart here at Milly’s Smiles to know that Milly’s name, her story and her legacy is continuing and reaching even more people.

Thank you to everyone who continues to support us, it allows us to continue to do what we do.