The Oxford Paper and Oxfordshire Guardian 2017 Charity of the Year

In January 2017, and in our tenth year, Play2Give was delighted to be chosen as the charity of the year by the now-defunct Oxfordshire Guardian and The Oxford Paper - which was part of the Taylor Newspapers group.
The now-defunct free weekly Guardian and the weekly paid-for Oxford Paper's charity of the year partnership meant that they gave us regular exposure and heavily featured Play2Give in their papers nearly every week over the course of the year and it also meant that both Oxford Children's Hospital and Headway Oxfordshire - our two benefiting charities in our tenth anniversary year - received more awareness as a result. Staff at Taylor Newspapers which was based in Didcot also helped raise money by getting involved in fundraising efforts throughout 2017.
The production manager that year, Peter Herring, took a leap of faith in September that year by skydiving 100-ft out of a plane, and he was followed the next month by George Welch, reporter, who ran 13.1-miles around Oxford in the city's half marathon, to help us raise £19,000 as part of milestone birthday year!
We were nominated by reporter George Welch and we were thrilled to have been chosen to receive a year's worth of support and awareness through this special partnership.
In 2016 the Blue Skye Thinking charity - The Aim Skye High appeal was the paper's charity of the year. Funds raised for the cause meant that Blue Skye Thinking, set up in 2014 as a legacy for five-year-old Abingdon boy Skye Hall, who died later the year from the side effects of aggressive cancer treatment, helped fund a new researcher through the Aim Skye High appeal. The funding of the researcher, which was greatly increased due to the Oxfordshire Guardian and Oxford Paper's exposure in 2016, enabled £50,000 raised to fund a three-year Post Doctoral research position at the renowned Northern Institute for Cancer Research. Overall since its creation in 2014, Blue Skye Thinking has raised a phenomenal amount of money and funded a four-year research project into childhood brain tumours, as well as raising awareness about childhood cancers and more funding for research.
This partnership of being the Oxfordshire Guardian and The Oxford Paper's Charity of the Year 2017 help make our initial '£10k in 10' appeal for 2017 extra special as we aimed to raise £10,000 across the year for the Children's Hospital and Headway Oxfordshire. However, by the end of the year our big birthday year had been so successful that we raised a record-breaking £19,000! Oxford Children's Hospital received £12k, whilst Headway gained from £7k.
Speaking at the time of the partnership, Karen Neville, who was the paper's group editor, said: "Play2Give is a great example of the good that can be done by people and communities when they come together for entirely selfless reasons and only to help improve the lives of those less fortunate and this was the over-riding reason why we chose to give our support to Play2Give as our charity of 2017. What Andy Baker and the team have achieved in 10 years is a testament to their hard work and dedication and we are proud to help them further this work this year as their mark their 10th anniversary."
The now-defunct free weekly Guardian and the weekly paid-for Oxford Paper's charity of the year partnership meant that they gave us regular exposure and heavily featured Play2Give in their papers nearly every week over the course of the year and it also meant that both Oxford Children's Hospital and Headway Oxfordshire - our two benefiting charities in our tenth anniversary year - received more awareness as a result. Staff at Taylor Newspapers which was based in Didcot also helped raise money by getting involved in fundraising efforts throughout 2017.
The production manager that year, Peter Herring, took a leap of faith in September that year by skydiving 100-ft out of a plane, and he was followed the next month by George Welch, reporter, who ran 13.1-miles around Oxford in the city's half marathon, to help us raise £19,000 as part of milestone birthday year!
We were nominated by reporter George Welch and we were thrilled to have been chosen to receive a year's worth of support and awareness through this special partnership.
In 2016 the Blue Skye Thinking charity - The Aim Skye High appeal was the paper's charity of the year. Funds raised for the cause meant that Blue Skye Thinking, set up in 2014 as a legacy for five-year-old Abingdon boy Skye Hall, who died later the year from the side effects of aggressive cancer treatment, helped fund a new researcher through the Aim Skye High appeal. The funding of the researcher, which was greatly increased due to the Oxfordshire Guardian and Oxford Paper's exposure in 2016, enabled £50,000 raised to fund a three-year Post Doctoral research position at the renowned Northern Institute for Cancer Research. Overall since its creation in 2014, Blue Skye Thinking has raised a phenomenal amount of money and funded a four-year research project into childhood brain tumours, as well as raising awareness about childhood cancers and more funding for research.
This partnership of being the Oxfordshire Guardian and The Oxford Paper's Charity of the Year 2017 help make our initial '£10k in 10' appeal for 2017 extra special as we aimed to raise £10,000 across the year for the Children's Hospital and Headway Oxfordshire. However, by the end of the year our big birthday year had been so successful that we raised a record-breaking £19,000! Oxford Children's Hospital received £12k, whilst Headway gained from £7k.
Speaking at the time of the partnership, Karen Neville, who was the paper's group editor, said: "Play2Give is a great example of the good that can be done by people and communities when they come together for entirely selfless reasons and only to help improve the lives of those less fortunate and this was the over-riding reason why we chose to give our support to Play2Give as our charity of 2017. What Andy Baker and the team have achieved in 10 years is a testament to their hard work and dedication and we are proud to help them further this work this year as their mark their 10th anniversary."
Read more
- Play2Give marks 10 years
- Year of special achievements in Play2Give's history: 'they were all great'
- Sacks of love as presents given to sick children
- Ho ho ho-w did Santas do running in the cold?
- Sleigh full of gifts for sick children
- A knockout way to start raising funds for 2018
- Pair amazed to receive awards honouring their achievements
- Oxford Children's Hospital appeal hits halfway mark
- Share your talent at charity's show
- P2G chuffed to raise £16k and beat the target
- Eight thousand runners, one dinosaur and lots of cash raised on city roads
- Having a ball to mark 10 years
- 13,0000ft leap of faith
- Gifts of hope at Christmas
- 10 years of playing to give charities a boost
- Bank holiday fun at P2G day
- Walker tells of delight as 480-mile feat beats target
- Delight as charity looks to outstrip fundraising target
- Tournament helps charity net funds towards £10k goal
- Tears as Andy given award
- Hardy souls preparing to aim sky-high for others
- Star fundraiser Andy steps out to hit 480-mile goal
- Fundraiser Andy's reward for raising £70,000 for charity
- Tournament's goal to raise £5k for children's hospital
- Intrepid trio aim to plunge 13,000 ft through the air for P2G
- Have a ball and help charity's target
- On me head son! Get out of your bubble for football fun
- Donate everyday items so families of sick kids can be with them 24/7
- New gym set to give patients a headstart in their treatment
- Making Headway in the rehabilitation of brain injury patients
- Football tournament hopes to net a record figure with your help
- Charity's a real brick when it comes to its support for hospital
- CHARITY OF THE YEAR: Monster effort helps team through smelly bog to boost charity fundraising
- CHARITY OF THE YEAR: Spurred on by thought of children in hospital
- CHARITY OF THE YEAR: New gym will help patients improve in leaps and bounds
- CHARITY OF THE YEAR: Kicking off football fun as tournament launches
- CHARITY OF THE YEAR: No half-hearted effort for distance running Matt
- CHARITY OF THE YEAR: Hospital room marks 'proudest and most special achievement' for P2G founder
- CHARITY OF THE YEAR: Room in teenagers' ward to be named after charity
- CHARITY OF THE YEAR: Fab five facing monster mud mayhem
- CHARITY OF THE YEAR: Play2Give ask for help to go to the ball
- CHARITY OF THE YEAR: A 'no brainer' - P2G founder knew he had to help out Headway
- CHARITY OF THE YEAR: Play2Give is saving little people with big needs
- Charity of the Year: Join skydive for Play2Give
- CHARITY OF THE YEAR: Many thousands of thanks from charity's founder
- The Oxford Paper and the Oxfordshire Guardian announce 2017 Charity of the Year