Children’s Health Foundation today kicked off their annual Christmas Wishes campaign, inviting corporate donors to support their vital work caring for sick children and their families.
The Christmas Wishes campaign is a key campaign for Children’s Health Foundation, the charity that raises vital funds to support sick children and their families in Children’s Health Ireland hospitals and urgent care centres in Crumlin, Temple Street, Tallaght and Connolly.
Launching this year’s campaign, Hugh Kane, Interim Chief Executive, Children’s Health Foundation said “There are hundreds of children who, instead of being at home, will be spending the upcoming Christmas period in hospital. This can be a strange and disorienting experience, so we are asking companies to help us ensure that these children — and their loved ones — have as much festive fun as possible. We need to get kids back to being kids. This is our Christmas wish, and we need all the help we can get, to make it come true.”
Donors are being encouraged to give in order to help children like River, a four-year-old boy who was in good health until he began experiencing seizures. These frightening incidents became more and more frequent, until he was finally brought to Children’s Health Ireland at Temple Street, where the team diagnosed him with a rare degenerative brain condition that could only be treated with surgery. This was a daunting prospect for young River and his family, but the surgical team had the expertise and the equipment they needed to operate successfully. They brought an end to River’s seizures and then worked extensively with him and his family in the months following the 12-hour surgery, to help him make the fullest possible recovery. River is now back to being a child — something that supporters can make possible for more sick children like him.
The Christmas Wish campaign features a number of different giving levels, starting at just €1,000 (Kind Wish) and rising to €10,000 (Compassionate Wish). At each giving level, donors receive a range of thank-you gifts for their generosity, such as email signatures, social media graphics, and feature on the charity’s website. At the higher end, the gifts include logo billing in a special Christmas Wishes ad, to be run in the Sunday Times the week before Christmas.
“We are deeply grateful to all those who support our work as corporate partners,” said Hugh Kane, Interim Chief Executive, Children’s Health Foundation. “The dedicated staff at Children’s Health Ireland hospitals and urgent care centres together form a strong and compassionate community, and the companies whose generosity helps ensure we have the resources we need to care for our young patients are absolutely part of that community.”
As they launch their campaign, Children’s Health Foundation has also created a special Christmas Wish video, which is published on their website https://youtu.be/dTdDzePAfB4?feature=shared In this moving short film, young patients — along with parents and Children’s Health Ireland staff members — talk about their own Christmas wishes, which range from ‘a puppy’ to ‘spending Christmas at home with my family.’
Any companies interested in learning more about supporting Children’s Health Foundation this Christmas are invited to call Mark O’Donnell on (01) 7091700 or email christmaswishes@childrenshealth.ie. There is also more information available — including a full list of the giving levels and their respective thank-you gifts — on the campaign’s website: https://www.childrenshealth.ie/christmaswishes/
