Play2Give - Blog

A week of triple on the air radio publicity

4/3/2021

It was a great bumper week of coverage for us on BBC Radio Oxford this past week, for which we are very thankful.

On Sunday afternoon, Al Ryan caught up with Andy to hear all about our fundraising plans so far, with many events in line this year (fingers crossed).

Andy's chat can be heard at 2hour 13 minutes in. Click here

Then on Tuesday afternoon, Adam Ball spoke with our youngest volunteer, Chloe Boyne, about her virtual OX5RUN on Sunday, representing P2G along the way. Her total raised so far stands at over £240!
Hear Chloe at 15 minutes into the show. Click here

And then on Wednesday morning it was our Community Officer's turn. Matt gave a very moving interview with Kat Orman, discussing fundraising particularly his "hair dye and shave" in memory of Angela Norris.
Matt's chat can be heard at 1 hour 15 minutes in. Click here

What a wonderful triple boost of awareness and highlighting our good work.
We continue to be grateful to our friends at BBC Radio Oxford for their support and their publicity to help our fundraising organisation.

Tremendous haul of toys to Thomley

4/2/2021

Today was a feelgood Friday, as we gave more gifts out, this time to the tremendous Thomley charity.

Andy handed over the haul of all new toys, games, books, lego, soft toys and more, to Sarah whose daughter Alison and son Matthew benefit as service users under this incredible charity based in Buckinghamshire.

The donations were raised as part of our sixth "Sleigh2Give" Christmas drive late last year, thanks to the incredible generosity of our local community and supporters who so kindly provided such amazing donations as part of our annual festive gift appeal.

Thomley, with an excellent range of fully-accessible facilities, is a place for babies children and all of ages with disabilities including support for carers and families including respite.
They are incredible day by day, and we are delighted to have provided these donations which are for sure bound to spread "cheer, joy and smiles".

A big bulk of these gifts will also go to the Maple Tree Children and Family Centre in Oxford, which provides sensory therapy to babies and children and again support to carers and families.

We continue to thank you, our wonderful community and supporters every day, for all your ongoing amazing support, kindness and love to all that we do in "changing, transforming and saving lives" across Oxfordshire and beyond.

Easter raffle is a yolking record success!

4/1/2021

A record £520 raised by our Easter raffle!

A huge thank you to everyone who supported our excellent Easter raffle this year.

Thanks to our supporters and their very generous participation and kind support we raised an incredible £520. For P2G, this is a new Easter raffle record ever!

Four tremendous local causes in Oxford Children's Hospital, Headway Oxfordshire, Sobell House and Be Free Young Carers will all benefit.

We had six eggscellent prizes and we congratulate all our lucky winners. The results can be viewed in our live video on our Facebook page drawn yesterday afternoon and commiserations to all those unlucky this time round. However, near fear as we will have more fundraising raffles, games and of course events to come.

The generosity and support all year round by our wonderful community of supporters never fails to amaze us, and even during the most challenging of time as Covid-19, they still pull out all the stops to help us in "changing, transforming and saving lives".

We thank everyone for a cracking result. As ever it really does mean such a lot, and will make an incredible difference on so many people's lives.

The inauguration of the Play2Give Volunteer Award

3/25/2021

We are delighted to announce that we are instituting our first ever Play2Give annual award for volunteers.

Here at Play2Give, we have such appreciation for the incredible work that all our volunteers and fundraisers do. Without you, we would not be able to provide the support that we do to such a range of incredible causes. Our motto is 'Changing, Transforming and Saving Lives' and that's what you, our volunteers and fundraisers, do every single day. Whether it is through increasing awareness of our causes, raising money for them, or supporting them in some other way (e.g. through gift donations as part of our Sleigh2Give drive), you are making a real, concrete difference in people's lives. In our minds, that makes you all heroes!

As many of you will know, we lost one of our long-time supporters, Angela Norris, in November last year. In honour of her, we are delighted to announce the institution of the "Play2Give Angela Norris Volunteer Award". While all of our supporters are appreciated beyond words, this Award offers an opportunity for the Play2Give family to come together and recognise a level of commitment that truly inspires.

The Award will be given to one recipient each year in recognition of their exceptional contribution to Play2Give. Recipients will receive a stunning Play2Give award plaque, a certificate signed by Andrew Baker MBE BCAv, and a £20 gift card at the next ball, which will be held on Saturday 12th March 2022. Nominations for the award will open in January 2022. Once nominations are received, the Play2Give leadership team will convene and select a winner. All nominees will likewise receive a certificate.

Please note that further information on the nomination process will be published in due course.

As a fundraising organisation, we are committed to operating as efficiently as possible. As such, the Award plaque and gift card will be funded by a private donor.

If you have any further questions, please contact our Community Officer Matthew:

Mail: Play2Give (c/o Community Officer), The Lambourn, Wyndyke Furlong, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 1UJ

E-mail: matthew@play2give.org.uk

Appreciation from HRH Princess Alexandra

3/24/2021

We would just like to share that HRH Princess Alexandra has sent her best wishes to Play2Give, wishing us continued success!

We were delighted today to receive a letter from HRH Princess Alexandra, The Queen's cousin, and we are delighted to share her letter that our community officer, Matthew, received, below.

Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy, is a working member of the Royal Family. Princess Alexandra is The Queen's cousin and is patron or president of over 100 organisations, with her wide-ranging interests in healthcare and the arts. Mental health care, palliative care and international aid remain close to the Princess's heart with patronages including Alzheimer's Society, Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and of Action for Blind People.

It is wonderful to receive royal appreciation which follows on from our founder Andrew Baker being honoured by Her Majesty The Queen with an MBE in the New Year Honours 2021.

Play2Give was also recognised by way of Andrew receiving an invitation to attend Her Majesty The Queen's garden party at Buckingham Palace in June 2018. Andy attended the occasion with his mother Ann, on the day of his 30th birthday.

Chloe's virtual five miles for poorly children in hospital

3/21/2021

One of our youngest and newest volunteers Chloe Boyne has again signed up to take part in this year's virtual OX5RUN for the Oxford Children's Hospital, part of the Oxford Hospitals Charity.

Chloe Boyne, 18, will be taking on the five miles by running in her village of Benson on what would of been this year's annual race day, on Sunday, March 28th.

The OX5 is the annual five mile fun run which raises money for the Oxford Children's Hospital, Horton children's ward in Banbury, and children's critical care areas at the John Radcliffe Hospital.

The money raised by the annual five mile race every year helps to fund the added extras and comforts for the young patients and their families. Since the OX5 Run launched in 2002 over £1 million has been raised helping towards funding in recent years new parent accommodation, sensory equipment, state of the art monitoring equipment and other cutting edge medical equipment, toys, games and artwork among other much important extras and facilities that help make the child's stay in hospital brighter and more comfortable, often while being treated for weeks and months on end.

Over the years Play2Give has assembled a team running five miles to raise big smiles, and in 2019 with our biggest ever team of "Superheroes" raising over £1,500 dressed as caped crusaders. We hope the OX5 RUN can return in its usual form in the beautiful setting of the grounds of Blenheim Palace in 2022 where we hope we can cape up another spectacular team next year.

Well done to Chloe, who is representing P2G and good luck. She has already raised £75 online so is off a flying start.

Chloe was part of a young group of NCS graduates from Didcot Team 4 in August 2019 who chose Play2Give to fundraise for as their Summer social action charity as part of their NCS programme. Their efforts helped us that year to fund 150 thermo-cooling mugs for parents to stay on the wards while catching a much needed cuppa break. Another example of how funds help to provide these added additional comforts such as these wonderful mugs.

Chloe was also one of our Superheroes who took part in the very first challenge our caped crusaders, including Batman and Robin, took on in September 2019 walking the entire distance from Didcot to the JR, raising over £580 for the Children's Hospital from generous donations in buckets from the generous public.

Please join us in wishing Chloe good luck for a week today, and we look forward to sharing her progress from her own virtual race day.

Chloe's fundraising page

Seven charities benefit from over £2,400 raised so far

3/20/2021

Over £2,415 raised so far this year for good causes!

Incredible!

We are delighted to share that already this year we have raised over £2,415 in funds which is already supporting 7 charities, to make an enormous difference on the lives of others.

This amount is more tha we have raised at this time of the year than in previous years. Amazing!

The total amount we have raised for charities so far this year: £2,419.47

Oxford Children's Hospital, Headway Oxfordshire, Sobell House Hospice, Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, British Lung Foundation, Viking House in Oxford and Footsteps Foundation have all benefited to date.

For example over £1,673 has been raised for the Children's Hospital which will continue to provide the very best medical treatment, cutting edge medical equipment, toys, games and engaging artwork to brighten up a child's stay and research into childhood illnesses such as meningitis, and £125 has gone directly to benefit the treatment of children with cancer on the Kamran's Ward.

Some special thanks to individuals for their fundraising challenges making the above possible; Luke Norris sponsored head shave in January (which kicked off our 14th fundraising year), Thomas Churchward for his sponsored cycle ride over five days and Matthew Norris for already raising £600 of his £650 "hair dye and head shave" fundraiser, and, of course to all of our wonderful supporters who have all contributed so far this year. We thank you all hugely!

At P2G we are all about "changing transforming and saving lives" and this we have done in abundance since being created in 2007.

We have gone on to support nearly 30 county-wide causes to date raising over £290k, some individual children and families in Didcot, provided grants in December to help families struggling with the financial impact of Covid-19, and we now provide clothing packages to less privileged and struggling individuals.

Our particular focus being in helping children, health and disability causes, and we are very proud that next year in 2022 we will celebrate our 15th birthday which is a remarkable achievement, thanks to you the support of our local community and supporters.

For more information on our work or to make a donation visit play2give.org.uk

Over 10k funds over 400 nights to keep families of sick children in hospital close by

3/13/2021

Funding over 400 nights to keep families close to their sick child in hospital

At Play2Give we was delighted to give our helping hand and support the building of a brand new facility to keep families accommodated and close by to sick children at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital.

Over the course of three years from 2018 we fundraised tirelessly to help make the dream of the brand new 62-bedroomed Ronald McDonald House Oxford a reality.

After numerous cakes sales, countless tombolas and raffles, a masquerade ball, danceathons, fun days, Marianne Slipper's 14-month long fundraising sales and car boots, fitness-a-thons, walks, runs, musical bingos, a Didcot mum and son's Newbury colour run, and much more we have provided over £10,000 in funds.

Our invaluable funds helped to create the construction of the brand new House which opened last May 2020, adjacent to the Women's Centre on the John Radcliffe Hospital site.
The new 62-bedroomed facility is able to support more families than ever before through tough distressing and difficult times whilst their sick child and siblings are being cared for in the Children's Hospital, neonatal care and Paediatric intensive care areas.

We were proud in raising over £10,000 to be able to sponsor a family room for a year.

The Play2Give Family Room was unveiled in the House recently, and now sits a plaque bearing our name on the door.

We are also proud of the fact that through our unrelenting and dedicated support we were able to fund a room at 400 nights, to keep a family close whilst they cope in the most distressing and challenging times of seeing their child poorly and often the families staying in the surroundings of Ronald McDonald Houses often for weeks, or months on end.

We didn't just provide gifts last Christmas to parents (gifts raised as part of our annual Sleigh2Give campaign) and provided crockery for the kitchen at the old house in 2017, our support extended far beyond by making a long lasting impact to help create a special purpose-built facility that cost £14million, a fundraising drive we were very proud to be a part of thanks to your support contributions and involvement.

We are all about "changing transforming and saving lives" and this we have done in abundance since being created in 2007.

We have gone on to support nearly 30 county-wide causes raising over £290k, some individual children and families in Didcot, provided grants in December to help families struggling with the financial impact of Covid-19, and we now provide clothing packages to less privileged and struggling individuals.

Our particular focus being in helping children, health and disability causes, and we are very proud that in 2022 we will celebrate our 15th birthday!

For more information on our work or to make a donation visit play2give.org.uk

Making children's lives with eye disorders better

3/6/2021

P2G's Andy and Dale, right, presents Ross Downes of the Paediatric Eye Fund with a big cheque totalling over £1,170 raised through 2014 fundraising activities.

Children with eye disorders benefited from two years of fundraising by Play2Give to help fund cutting edge imaging equipment.

The Oxford Paediatric Eye Fund, based at the John Radcliffe Eye Hospital, was one of our charities who received a helping hand through our fundraising activities and events across two years.

Our support helped fund incredible diagnostic equipment to help children and premature babies born with eye sight threatening diseases, for the PEF part of the Oxford Hospitals Charity.

Across 2014 to 2015 we raised over £3,340 for the Paediatric Eye Fund (PEF) enough to have helped fund a RET-CAM - one of many specialist cutting edge imaging equipment, a revolutionary piece of kit, we were proud to fundraise towards. The RET-CAM being a revolutionary piece of kit used to photograph the retina of infants with a range of disorders, from cancer of the retina to Retinopathy of prematurity and shaken baby injury.

We raised the funds through events including two charity nights which saw not just discos but sponsored chilli-eating contestants and sponsored doughnut-eating contests combined for entertaining evenings, obstacle runs, bag packs and collections in Sainsbury's Didcot, fitness spinathons, sponsored walks, football matches, raffles and much more.

Pictured right is Ross Downes, who was heavily involved at the time in leading fundraising efforts with Oxford Eye Hospital clinicians with our very own Andy Baker and Dale Harris, with a grand cheque totalling proceeds we raised in 2014.

Consultant Ophthalmologist at the Eye Hospital, Srilakshmi Sharma, who said of the scanners in 2016, which we helped fund: "Imaging of the retina in children is a vital way to see how the eye's light sensitive tissue, the retina, is being affected by the conditions affecting the eye which causes loss of sight.
"Children don't often stay still and they are much smaller so we need to harness technological advances and use equipment that is portable or small enough to be used on an infant.

"The new cutting edge equipment will help us quickly and easily obtain images of the retina and make prompt diagnoses and treatment decisions on the smallest of children. We want to say an enormous 'thank you' to our donors, including Play2Give."

Read more about how we helped PEF

Supporting charities particularly focusing on "children, health and disability" causes links in well with our dedicated support to hospital related causes such as the PEF locally. For Andy he received surgery aged three at the Oxford Eye Hospital, so supporting such a cause to give back to other children with eye disorders was another cause with personal significance, to make a long term impact for the benefit of advancement in medical treatment for youngsters.

Thank you to everyone who continues to support our amazing fundraising organisation.

It is only thanks to our local community and all of our supporters who get behind our events, take part in activities, donate money or toys, to helping out their time on stalls and in other ways, that we are able to continue helping the likes of Oxford Children's Hospital and so many other charities and people in need locally.

It's a grey matter for our community officer

3/4/2021

Matt, top left with his natural hair, top right first bleach, bottom left second bleach and bottom right Matt's dyed hair grey

It is a grey matter now for one of our executive team players after a "hair-raising" halfway point was smashed earlier this week.

Our Community Officer, Matthew Norris has dyed his hair grey, having smashed the halfway mark of £325 on his fundraiser for the Oxford Children's Hospital and the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation. We are the chosen fundraising organisation.

Previously in our blog we reported how Matt had set out to raise £650 in total to do a full head shave, in honour of his Mother Angela Norris, and we are delighted he is now over halfway there.

Matt's hair is a little darker than we hoped in the grey stakes but we wanted to spare his hair and bathroom from a fourth bleaching in the space of two days! He is thoroughly grey, though!

If you would like to help him hit the end goal of £650 for his full headshave and support some amazing work, click here to donate.

Well done Matt on your amazing "hair-transformation" and we look forward to (hopefully) shaving all your hair off to a smooth egg soon, which will be a particular highlight of ours in your role so far.

Matt came on board as our Community Officer in 2016 after being immediately awe struck by the passion and dedication of our founder Andrew Baker MBE BCAv, and in his role Matt focuses on raising awareness, including liaising with local businesses, producing promotional material, and utilising social media campaigns. He works closely with Andy to help organise community events and has spearheaded a number of initiatives for our organisation and his favourite highlight of his tenure is handing out gifts dressed as Santa at Christmas every year (Sleigh2Give) to patients in the Oxford Children's Hospital.

Meet the Play2Give Team