Record night of fundraising for childhood cancer charity

Sam Schoolar (left) receiving the cheque from Sarah Jordan

More than £10,000 has been raised in one night for Coventry and Warwickshire families affected by childhood cancer.

Coventry solicitors Band Hatton Button have donated all of the £10,127 proceeds to Shine A Light Support Service from their charity ball which they held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Walsgrave, and which was attended by 220 people from across the region's business community.

A large portion of the money raised will go towards helping the charity with their new premises on the Arches Industrial Estate in Spon End to provide their services to families, including counselling sessions for parents, and a drop-in centre where parents and children can come together to play.

The money, the biggest donation Shine a Light Support Service has ever received, will also enable the charity to put on social activities for teenagers such as laser quest and bowling.

Sam Schoolar launched Shine A Light Support Service in October 2016 and currently supports around 35 families a month across Coventry and Warwickshire.

She said: "This amount of money ensures that families who are going through some of their darkest days can continue to receive much-needed support.

"Learning of a cancer diagnosis can affect not just the person themselves, but their friends and family too, and we do our best to help families maintain as much normality as possible while the affected child is going through treatment.

"We are entirely reliant on donations from the general public and so we are extremely grateful to Band Hatton Button for supporting us.

"We are always on the lookout for volunteers, particularly now we have a new home - please get in touch if you are interested."

Sarah Jordan, head of marketing and client relations at Band Hatton Button, has been overseeing the fundraising drive with Sam.

Sarah added: "We are extremely proud to say that this is the biggest total we have ever achieved from one of our charity balls.

"Shine A Light's cause touched all of our guests on the night, and that meant we had some great support for our fundraising on the night which included games, a raffle, silent auction and higher lower quiz game. We had also had some fantastic donations of prizes from local business contacts.

"This is just the start of our work with Shine A Light and we look forward to further supporting them throughout the year and as they settle into their new base."

For more information about Shine A Light Support Service visit www.shinealightss.org.uk