Inspiresport are pleased to announce our new charity partnership with Grace’s Place and Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice.
The recently opened hospice in Bury, Greater Manchester is a culmination of over 18 months hard work by the Huddersfield based charity. The Forget Me Not team already supply support and care to a number of children with life-shortening illnesses and their families through their ‘Hospice at Home’ service in Bury, Rochdale and Oldham.
Officially opened earlier this month, Grace’s Place has several children’s and family bedrooms, a toy-filled play area and space for parents to relax. It also has a state-of-the-art sensory room which provides stimulation and helps children develop their motor and communication skills, and a Snowflake Room where bereaved families can spend time together and say their last goodbyes.
More than 650 children in Bury, Oldham and Rochdale are living with life-shortening conditions. With very little of the income Forget Me Not needs to support them coming from government sources, corporate partnerships, like the one announced by inspiresport, are particularly important.
Although fundraising will form an important part of inspiresport’s role over the next 2 years, it’s not the only area we plan on impacting! We hope to also provide a range of experiences for Forget Me Not families with the help of our sporting partnerships and contacts.
Gareth Pierce, Director of Income Generation at Forget Me Not said:
“We are delighted here at Forget Me Not to be working with inspiresport going forward for the next 2 years. This partnership will open up new experiences for our children and their families. We have discussed some very exciting ideas and plans, and we cannot wait to get the partnership underway to get things moving!”
The new children’s hospice in Manchester may seem like an unusual choice of partner for us, but after attending a fundraising event last year in Huddersfield which led to Lynda Merryweather our Sales Manager for the North East raising £1000.00, we were very keen to see what else we could do.
Inspiresport CEO Steve Butchart explains:
“We have recently opened a new office in Manchester’s Spinningfields and announced the continuation of our exclusive partnership with Man City’s City Football School just before Christmas, so our links with the area are very strong. As our business is all about providing travel and sporting opportunities for young people, it was obvious to us that our charity partner should be a children’s charity.”
Steve continued:
“A common theme we hear from our Party Leaders when they return from trips is that the youngsters have had ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ experiences and created memories which will last forever – this got us thinking about how we might be able to help children with life-shortening illnesses, and their families, experience something similar.”
Grace’s Place is a ‘Reg. Charity No 1110457’