Students at Bath College welcomed three special visitors into their classroom to mark the end of a fundraising project for the Hope 4 Harmonie appeal.
Three-year-old Harmonie-Rose visited the college’s Somer Valley Campus to meet students along with her parents Freya Hall and Ross Allen.
The Hope 4 Harmonie appeal was set up to help Harmonie-Rose, from Bath, who fell ill and was rushed into hospital with meningitis B at just 10-months old.
To save her life, doctors at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children had to operate, and the appeal is helping Harmonie-Rose adapt to life as a quadruple amputee.
Somer Valley Foundation Learning students raised £150 for the Hope 4 Harmonie appeal through an event selling hand-made cakes, bird boxes and planters.
VAP Construction students also made a clothes chest and a bed for Harmonie-Rose’s doll Rebecca, a special “lookalike” doll which comes with its own prosthetic limbs.
Student Aaron Connor knows Harmonie-Rose and her family, and was keen to suggest the Hope 4 Harmonie appeal for the fundraising project.
During the visit, student Jordan Jones gave a short presentation to Harmonie-Rose, Freya and Ross to show them how students had fundraised.
He said: “It was very nice to meet Harmonie-Rose, I thought she was cool. It was nice to see her face light up when she saw what we’d made. I’d like to do something like this to fundraise again.”
Harmonie-Rose’s mum Freya said: “She will love the bed and the clothes chest – she loves anything that she can open and close.
“She has quite a few clothes for Rebecca, people have made her matching clothes, and we need somewhere to put them so this is really useful.
“My brother is friends with Aaron, he has been a close friend of the family for years. To see people go out of their way to help you, it’s so selfless. It’s lovely to see that people are continuing to fundraise for Hope 4 Harmonie.”
Ashleigh Taylor, Deputy Head of Foundation Learning at Bath College, said: “This was a student-led, student-organised and student-driven event.
“I am so proud of how they worked together for a common cause and having Harmonie-Rose and her parents visit was just fantastic.
“Foundation students undertake a number of projects over the year, and for their final project, they will work together to fundraise for an end of the year celebratory trip.”