A Decade of Difference: Surrey Choices Celebrates 10 Years
In 2019, Surrey Choices raised a staggering amount of £6034.46 for The Fountain Centre, who support cancer patients, families and Carers at the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford.
Over the year, many fundraising events were planned, organised and delivered by disabled people which meant overcoming a range of barriers from communicating with local businesses for support, to reaching new physical goals. Some of these events included a sponsored walk in Godalming, a community bowling event at Guildford Spectrum, Bake Off’s and more!
Employees have also completed adrenaline-fuelled challenges such as an Abseil off Guildford Cathedral and an overnight walk from Brighton to Guildford.
Alongside fundraising, Surrey Choices has been working hard to raise awareness of cancer, especially for those with learning disabilities. A group of women with disabilities from Lockwood Activity Centre worked in collaboration with The Jarvis Centre and InHealth Group to create an Easy Read guide on Breast Screening, after research highlighted a large gap in women with learning disabilities attending their breast screening appointments. These women were photographed to show what can be expected at a breast screening appointment. Two guides were then created by a gentleman supported at Surrey Choices Guildford Office Project. Since distributing the guides, a 3% increase was seen in the number of appointments being attended and the collaborative work received a Make It Better Service Award from the British Institute of Radiology.
Fiona Dick, Communications, Fundraising and Donor Liaison from The Fountain Centre reflected on their year of support:
“The Fountain Centre has had a lovely year as Surrey Choices chosen charity. It has been great getting to know the team and some of the customers, and we have learned a lot about working with individuals who have very particular communication needs which we can apply to what we do with cancer patients. After all, disabled people get cancer too.
We are grateful for all the funds raised throughout the year. They will help us kit out the new cabin being built in our garden in 2020 which will be used by the Family Service for the work we do with the children of cancer patients.”
Mette Le Jakobsen, Managing Director of Surrey Choices, said:
“Surrey Choices has been delighted to support The Fountain Centre this past year. It has enabled us to raise awareness about cancer and about the importance of everyone looking after their health. Of course it also means we have had a lot of fun with our fundraising activities and it has been great to see everyone taking part and being included.”
Surrey Choices are proud to be supporting Mind charity as their 2020 Local Charity of The Year. Find out more about the partnership and how you can get involved here:
https://www.surreychoices.com/
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