Local charity Jessie May has received a donation of £42,000 from the ‘Make Some Noise’ campaign, which has been running on local radio station Heart West Country.
The campaign has seen money-can’t-buy prizes being auctioned off, as well as other fundraising activities over the course of a year, and has been supported by presenters across the station including breakfast hosts Ed, Troy and Paulina.
Media and entertainment group Global, which runs the local station, selected Jessie May as one of the beneficiaries of Make Some Noise, a national scheme which aims to support small charities and projects across the UK making a difference to the lives of young people.
Caring for terminally ill children within their own homes in Bristol, Bath, South Gloucestershire, North Somerset and Wiltshire, Jessie May recorded a 20% rise in referrals last year and currently has its highest caseload since inception.
The grant will help to ensure the charity has the capacity to respond to the growing demand in the future, and continue to improve young lives.
Jessie May head of fundraising Julian Withers said: “When we found out last year that we had been chosen by Global for the Make Some Noise campaign we were delighted, but never in our wildest dreams did we imagine it would result in an amazing £42,000 donation!
“As a small, local charity this amount of money is a huge deal for us and we couldn’t be happier. Our caseload grows around 20% year on year which means we need to keep expanding and we need the funds to be able to do that.
“This donation means that we can fund a specialist Jessie May nurse for one year. This nurse’s role will involve setting new children up on to our caseload and making sure that both they and their families have all the support they need.
“The children we care for have extremely complex needs and are not expected to make it to adulthood so the work we do in making them comfortable and supporting their families is vital.
“This work underpins everything we do, so another nurse on the team will mean we can react when new families need our help.
“We’d like to extend a huge thank you to everyone at Global and Heart West Country for the effort they have put into the campaign, and of course to the listeners who have gotten behind it and made a real difference to local families.”
Paul Andrew, Heart West Country managing editor, said: “Being able to help support Jessie May has been one of the highlights of the last 12 months for Heart.
“Not only have we had a lot of fun at a variety of fundraising events but we have got to know some of the families that Jessie May supports personally and seen just what Jessie May Trust means to these families and the huge support they offer.
“We were very pleased to help them “Make Some Noise” about what they do throughout the year and also present them with the £42,000 raised by our amazing listeners in the last 12 months.”
Jessie May provides a hospice at home service for terminally ill children. It costs around £1,000,000 for the charity to provide this care yearly and Jessie May is almost entirely dependent on public support.