Smallwood Manor School Raises £2,000 for Billy’s Appeal
January 19, 2009
Pupils at Smallwood Manor Preparatory School (Staffordshire) have raised £2,000 for an appeal that was set up in aid of a children’s cancer charity, after their fellow pupil beat the disease.
Over the past 12 months, Smallwood Manor Preparatory School, which is part of the Woodard Group of Schools, has staged a wealth of fundraising activities in aid of Billy’s Appeal. The Appeal is raising £2 million for CLIC Sargent to provide a new Home from Home to provide free accommodation for use by families of children with cancer.
The pupils aged two to 11 have taken part in everything from bike rides and obstacle courses to penalty shoot-outs against their teachers in order to raise the £2,000. Smallwood Manor pupil’s fundraising total now stands at £2,500 and more fundraising activities are planned to help support Billy’s Appeal as it works towards its target.
Billy’s Appeal was set up by Laura and John Greenall, the parents of Smallwood Manor pupil, Billy, aged seven years. At just three and a half years, Billy was diagnosed with Wilms tumour, a tumour on the kidney. Throughout his treatment, Billy and his family received support from CLIC Sargent which provides information and a wide range of support services to the families of children and young people with cancer.
Billy was treated at The Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham, the only primary treatment centre for children with cancer in the East Midlands. As a result, families of children with the disease who live outside of the county have to either make long journeys to access treatment and visit their sick children, sleep on the hospital ward or try to find hotel or private rented accommodation close by. Faced with a 100-mile round trip, Billy’s parents opted for the latter, which they say was an added financial burden at an already stressful time.
To date Billy’s Appeal has raised £1.8 million. A property has now been purchased and contractors will be appointed in the next couple of weeks. The property will be renovated to provide the new Home from Home that will help keep families together when the unimaginable happens and a child is diagnosed with cancer. CLIC Sargent hopes to have completed the project by June 2008 in time for an official opening to coincide with Billy’s birthday.
Laura Greenall said: ‘Throughout his illness we found the help, advice and support provided by CLIC Sargent to be invaluable. With Billy now in remission and at school, we wanted to say thank you to CLIC Sargant and help support other parents of children with cancer. There’s no Home from Home facility available in Nottingham, so we felt that raising the funds to build one would be the perfect way to do this.
‘I’d like to say a huge thank you to all the pupils and staff at Smallwood Manor for raising a further £2,000 for Billy’s Appeal. The kindness and generosity of so many people has helped us to get this far and I’m sure will help us reach our £2 million target.’
Headmaster Chris Cann added: ‘Billy is a very happy and popular child and it’s hard to believe now what he has gone through. Speaking to Laura and John, it’s clear that CLIC Sargent provided invaluable support throughout Billy’s treatment so as a school we are only too pleased to support Billy’s Appeal in their bid to fund a new Home from Home.’
