Gemma Vickerage, a local from Southend, wanted to organise three events to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital, specifically the Lion and Giraffe wards who treated her three-year-old son Artie who was suffering from an aggressive form of cancer.
Great Ormond Street
She also wanted to raise money for the Gold Geese. a local Southend charity who support families who have young children with cancer and the play team at Southend Hospitals Neptune Ward, who looked after her son Artie during his treatment. We supported by providing meal vouchers for our 1935 Rooftop Restaurant. See what Gemma had to say below:
“Hi Louise,
I just thought I’d pop you a quick mail to say thank you so much for your generous donation for our charity raffle. With the appeal of such amazing prizes, the raffle alone raised £3600, bringing our total raised to £7000! Not only this, but Artie was able to ring the bell last week having finished treatment and having his line removed.
Donation
We donated most of the pot to Great Ormond Street and Gold Geese (Supporting local families facing childhood cancer). The GOSH money is being specifically allocated to the the Lion and Giraffe wards that deal with childhood haematology cancers and will be used to improve facilities for families there.
Gold Geese
Gold Geese are planning to use the money to help host a conference for medical staff to get earlier diagnosis for childhood cancers. They also use the funds for the families, for example they offered my husband accommodation near to GOSH when Artie got readmitted with a complication, and they also threw him a fantastic Halloween end of treatment party – he absolutely loved it.
Southend Hospital
We are also making a £500 donation to each Southend Neptune Ward and to Eloise Taylor who is battling relapsed Leukaemia. We met them on the ward at Gosh and we are always thinking of them so we decided to add to their pot as our raffle earned a little more than we were expecting and we really wanted to help them.
Thanks again for all your support.
Warm Regards,
Gemma Vickerage”
