Bellway donates towards children and family support charity in Warwick
Bellway has donated £500 to a Warwickshire charity supporting children with life-threatening illnesses and their families.
Molly Olly’s Wishes is a charity founded in 2011 by Rachel and Tim Ollerenshaw, after the passing of their daughter Molly.
Bellway’s donation will go towards children’s wishes and the distribution of ‘Olly the Brave’ cuddly toy packs, which are the charity’s own therapeutic toy, gifted to children’s hospitals across the UK.
Bellway is building new homes across the Coventry, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Oxfordshire area with their head offices based in Coventry.
Co-founder of Molly Olly’s Wishes, trustee and Molly’s mum, Rachel Ollerenshaw, said: “We have three ways of helping people at Molly Olly’s Wishes. The first is to grant wishes for children and their families, the second is by donating our therapeutic toy, named Olly the Brave, along with six self-written books and the third is to do big, one-off projects.
“Wishes can be as small as gifting some Tesco vouchers, and can range from an iPad to medical equipment. We grant about 350 wishes a year with an average of £500 each.
“We are run by volunteers and have no government funding so rely wholly on fundraising and the kindness and generosity of companies like Bellway to support us.”
Financial Director for Bellway South Midlands, Adam Pugh, said: “Giving emotional support to children and their families during an incredibly difficult time is vitally important and something that should be recognised as needing funding.
“Molly Olly’s Wishes carries out such important work. Their volunteers support families throughout our area and beyond. With so many fundraising activities on hold, we hope this donation will help them to continue to make a difference.”
Rachel and Tim founded the charity following Molly’s death in 2011 when she was aged just eight. Molly had fought after a long brave battle with a rare type of kidney cancer, called a Wilms tumour.
Rachel said: “We have two other children, Ben and Maeve, and we were lucky enough to have a lot of family and community support during Molly’s battle as well as afterwards.
“Molly relapsed three times over the course of five years, and we spent a large part of that time in and out of hospital. We realised that many of the other patients and families we met did not have the same emotional or financial support which we had for Molly and her siblings.”
The charity recently funded paediatric palliative care consultant at Birmingham’s Children’s Hospital and has created a dedicated area at the hospital for parents of children with serious illnesses.
To find out more about Molly Olly’s Wishes or to donate, visit mollyolly.co.uk.
For more information about the new homes Bellway are building across the region, visit bellway.co.uk.
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- Jackie Evans from Molly Olly's and Angela Nurse from Bellway South Midlands at Molly Olly’s Wishes’ offices in Warwick