Small charities who got cash boosts from our £1m birthday fund thank Sun readers
WHAT better way to say thanks a MILLION to our brilliant readers than by helping wonderful causes chosen by you.
To mark our 50th birthday last November, we set up The Sun Readers’ Fund to donate grants totalling £1million to an array of small charities.
Nominations are now closed, and we will be picking worthy recipients throughout the year to get grants of up to £20,000.
Our panel, including Sun agony aunt Deidre Sanders and Paralympics ace Derek Derenalagi, have the tough task of deciding between all the heartwarming stories about nominated organisations up and down the country.
Here, Martin Phillips reveals four of the groups who have had a very welcome cash boost.
Smalls For All
TEN years ago, Maria Macnamara marked her 40th birthday with a trip to an Ethiopian orphanage.
While there, she noticed women and children lacked affordable underwear.
Now 50-year-old Maria and a team of 27 volunteers at Smalls For All distribute pants, bras and hygiene kits to 18 African countries, as well as to homeless shelters in Scotland.
The charity, which collected its millionth pair of pants in March last year, has recently moved operations to a warehouse in West Calder, West Lothian.
And to help the team maximise and organise their space, we have given them £4,000 towards buying industrial racks.
Maria said: “Space is a real challenge for us. Last year from April to December, we received more than 51,000 boxes.
“They’ve all got to be opened and, if there’s an email address, acknowledged.
“We try to be organised but you are talking about cardboard boxes with pants in them, all labelled, on the floor.”
The charity started out small in 2009 with Maria asking friends and family to donate towards a target of 2,000 pants for charities in Africa.
Imagine you didn’t have any underwear – how would you go about your day?
Maria Macnamara. Smalls For All founder
She was overwhelmed when she received 6,000 pairs and delivered them to orphanages, hospitals and refugee camps in Kenya.
She said: “These kids do not have underwear, they’re wearing rags and sometimes plastic bags.”
Maria registered the charity in 2010 and was working with friends from her home in Livingston, West Lothian.
She said: “I managed it really well until 2015 when we went viral on Facebook. We went from 900 likes to 50,000 in a week.”
Maria recruited more volunteers and left her insurance job to go part-time at the charity.
She said: “Imagine you didn’t have any underwear – how would you go about your day?
“Our work means girls get to go to school and stay in school.
"Everyone knows education is a key to helping you get out of poverty.”
- See .
Hampshire Harriers Inclusive Sports Club
CARING husband and wife Terry and Annette Marsh were so disappointed by the lack of sports facilities for disabled youngsters in their area, they decided to set up a club just for a few months.
That was more than 35 years ago and the Hampshire Harriers has since gone on to help hundreds of young people, disabled and able-bodied, to participate in sports on equal terms.
Wheelchair basketball is the club’s forte and many of its members have gone on to gain confidence and better health while several have excelled to represent Great Britain.
New arrivals to the club, however, often find their heavy wheelchairs make it difficult to compete, so Terry and Annette visit schools regularly with the old-style chairs to show able-bodied pupils just how hard it is for their disabled classmates to get around.
Modern, lightweight made-to-measure sports wheelchairs are expensive, ranging from £2,000 to £4,000-plus, but the donation of £10,000 from The Sun Readers’ Fund will buy new wheelchairs for four more disabled youngsters.
Retired labourer Terry, 67, who is still the head coach and treasurer for the Portsmouth-based club, said: “I was shocked when I heard we had been chosen to receive the money from Sun readers. It’s wonderful and will make a real difference.”
He added: “We’ve got one young lad who is typical. His father said he used to sit at home all day just playing on his computer because he felt he could not get involved in sport because of his disability. He is now a changed person.
“He has become more sociable, more independent and goes to watch sport as well as playing it with us.
“It’s so nice to see the change in youngsters when they are given the chance to get involved.”
- See .
Maddie's Butterflies
FOUNDED in honour of seven-year-old Madison Allan – who died from cancer on Boxing Day 2011 – Maddi’s Butterflies offers other children fighting the disease a chance to have a holiday in a specially adapted caravan in Blackpool.
And a £15,000 donation from The Sun has now guaranteed it can continue for another three years.
Maddi’s Butterflies was set up in 2012 by Madison’s parents Samantha, 44, and Mark, 52, from Darwen, Lancs, who also have ten-year-old daughter, Scarlett.
In its first year, they raised enough money to buy a six-berth caravan situated in Marton Mere, Blackpool, where up to 30 families a year can now enjoy a break from hospitals and cancer treatment.
Samantha, who runs Maddi's Butterflies - which also has a busy charity shop - full-time alongside two employees, said: “Maddi was diagnosed with neuro- blastoma, a rare childhood cancer of the nerve tissue, in July 2005, aged only ten months old. It changed our lives forever.
“Maddi hated hospitals and despite how poorly she was, she was determined to come home for Christmas in her final year.
"She managed to open her main present, an iPad, and although she was too ill to eat, she sat with the whole family for Christmas dinner, taking it all in.
'OUR HERO'
“She had fought so hard, stayed so positive and suffered so much.
"When she left us the next day it was gentle and peaceful.”
A precious family break at a caravan in Blackpool during Maddi’s final months inspired Samantha to offer the same opportunity to others.
She says: “The caravan is somewhere families can relax and spend happy time together.
“Travelling abroad is often impossible, but this is accessible to everyone.”
But the charity struggled with the costs and came near to having to close down.
Samantha says: “When I heard we were going to receive The Sun money, I cried with relief.
“Maddi was our hero, and her strength and determination in life continues through us helping other children like her.”
- See .
Scarborough and Ryedale Mountain Rescue
THEY are a hardy bunch in the Scarborough And Ryedale Mountain Rescue Team. And they need to be to rescue lost or injured walkers, climbers or mountain bikers in all weathers on the North Yorks Moors, the Yorkshire Wolds and in the Dalby Forest.
The 60 active volunteers, including doctors, nurses, paramedics, hill walkers and mountain climbers, respond to between 60 and 80 incidents a year in support of the emergency services.
As one of the biggest Mountain Rescue teams in the country, they cover a 2,100 square-mile area and are increasingly called out to find lost people suffering from dementia or those intent on self-harm, as well as those who get into trouble while enjoying the great outdoors.
When they are not responding to call-outs, they train in search and rescue and survival techniques, casualty care and navigation in order to be ready for action.
Army veteran Ian Hugill, who nominated the team for a grant and who volunteers with the other rescuers, said: “They are a bunch of people from a wide range of different backgrounds who all want to help others.”
It was Lancastrian fell walker Alfred Wainwright who once said, “There is no such thing as bad weather…only unsuitable clothing”, and the members of the Mountain Rescue Team would be lost without their own heavy-duty waterproofs when facing the worst the elements can throw at them.
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But what about the summer months when the weather can be warmer but atrociously wet?
A grant of £8,000 from The Sun Readers’ Fund will help to buy a full set of lightweight waterproofs for each operational team member to tackle the terrain protected from the elements but not restricted by heavy clothing.
Ian said: “They have a great team spirit and make sure they have fun, but it’s a serious job and they need serious equipment to do it. This will make a big difference.”
- See .
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