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.”

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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.”

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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.