We are truly thankful to everyone that has supported our Mark’s Charity, be that by donations, fundraising or sharing our social media posts.

I felt it opportune to share with you how donations have been spent, because every penny counts.

Every year in December we offer enhanced support to those who need it the most, and we focus our support to maximise the wide range of challenges people face.

This year, we have committed to supporting WAY; Widowed and Young. A Charity that offers a peer to peer safe space for Widows and Widowers under 50. There are children who have lost a parent and will find Christmas immeasurably painful. No amount of presents will ever make this right, so a slight glimmer of light by the gift of a gift is our aim.

In addition, as we do every year, we will have a full Christmas dinner; Turkey and all the trimmings for 6 to donate. We welcome suggestions for people who you feel would benefit from this gift.

We also have a fixed number of Lifestyle giftcards which will enable the holder to buy groceries, clothes and access over 300 brands.

Finally, we offer to pay a monthly utility bill / add credit to pre-payment meter.

To enable us to support as much as we can, please click through to our website and use Contact Us to send us the information. We will then make contact from there.

Please do share this post so we can reach as many people as possible, we would really appreciate this.

We are a family run Charity funded solely by donations. If you are able to help us with this year’s Christmas Campaign, please do click here.

So what have we achieved with your donations?

Our support reached a man living in the South West who was signposted to Mark’s Foundation after his grade 4 prostate cancer diagnosis, and subsequent treatment left him doubly incontinent and without support.

With no family and/or assistance locally, he felt he had nowhere to turn to.

Somebody guided him to us, and we are grateful to them for doing so.

He wrote to us, by way of a proper letter, explaining his situation, the debilitating effects his treatment is having, the financial hit of the cost of living crisis and, after checking for him, he’s not entitled to any governmental benefits. Add to that, he was in need of basic provisions in his home including appropriate underwear and bed and bath items.

We had to act, and quickly. We spoke to him same day, and we had another call a few days later after he shared supporting information.

We had a new trustee join us, Jessica McMahon, and have set up a group chat where we can discuss cases and reach decisions quickly, saving the wait for the official trustees meeting.

We agreed to support by way of:

£100 cash grant for gas and electricity

£100 Tesco gift card to assist with the cost of personal hygiene supplies

£100 Matalan gift card to aid with bed and bath items.

Other areas of life we have positively impacted include:

• Providing access to private consultants for mental health support both in adults and children.
• Supporting people by signposting to appropriate agencies to help them off the hardship cycle they have found themselves in – living month to month, some people find themselves living in an overdraft and their salary doesn’t even lift them out of it. Many are working as hard as possible, and bringing up a family at the same time, but it’s tough. Some families have members with complex needs which adds an additional layer when seeking support. The cost of living crisis is hitting people where it hurts the most.
• Offering utilities grants, whereby, we add gas and electric credit direct to meters or pay a bill directly.
• Providing bus passes to aid travel, this could be to enable people to get to a place of employment or pick children up from school.
• Arranging gift cards for a variety of retailers to buy clothes – we have helped people with interview attire, clothes for children and winter outfits for adults.
• Issuing Food cards.
• Allocating cash grants to support respite, refuge, home renovations, furniture, Christmas presents for children, clothing and food.

You have made this happen. Every single one of you who has donated have made a difference to people’s lives by enabling us to help people when they need it the most.

We are beyond grateful to also have people donate their time and expertise to support Mark’s Foundation, including:

*Builders

*Mechanics

*Yoga Teachers

*Mental Health Professionals

*Business Operators

*HR Experts

*Coaches

Fundraising has seen a 5k run by 8 year old Conor generating over £400, a skydive which raised £500, and two people set up monthly standing orders creating £1800. Every penny matters. Typically, our Christmas Campaign needs approximately £2000 and every penny of this comes from the kindness and generosity of people, some we know and some we don’t.

We thank you for your continued support x