The Ely Standard
HOH Campaign
IN February 2006, the Ely Standard launched its Help Our Hospice campaign to raise funds for terminally ill youngsters and increase awareness of the funding difficulties facing children's' hospices. The Milton Children's Hospice is in Ely's patch and is one of three children's' hospices in East Anglia that provides expert care for terminally ill youngsters.
The Ely Standard's campaign centred on the fact that children's' hospices only receive between eight and 10 per cent of their funding from central government - the rest comes from fund-raising and public donation.
Readers were asked to sign a petition to highlight the lack of funding and later this was sent, with 3,000 signatures, to 10 Downing Street. Readers responded in magnificent fashion with all kinds of weird and wacky fund-raising schemes, and in mid-July of the same year, The Ely Standard was able to announce that they had raised £50,000 for the charity. In fact, within days of the launch readers had donated hundreds of pounds at their Ely office. A project to recycle old mobile phones was also launched to raise money for the charity and this is still running as it has been so popular.
The final amount handed over to the charity was in the region of £80,000 which is an incredible achievement for a small local newspaper and highlights the goodwill and generosity that exists in the local community.
Liam Fairhurst
Liam's Fund
IN March of 2007, the Ely Standard launched Liam's Fund. Liam Fairhurst is a 12-year-old schoolboy from Ely's neighbouring town of Soham.
On the week that the campaign was launched, Liam and his family had received the devastating news that the cancer which had already threatened his young life, had returned. After recovering from the first cancer diagnosis two years earlier, Liam decided to raise money for the CLIC Sargent children's cancer charity and was determined to reach his £100,000 target. When the campaign was launched, Liam's total was £90,000 and within weeks of the Ely Standard involving its readers, it was way over the £100,000 mark. To date, the Ely Standard campaign has raised in the region of £40,000 and is well on track to match last year's Hospice campaign success.
Liam is still recovering from the second diagnosis, but is determined to fight the disease and raise even more money for charity. He has received a Diana Award for his achievements and recently met Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Mr Brown also gave Liam a mention during the Labour party conference in October and remarked on the youngster's inspirational fund-raising efforts, before announcing his intention to allocate millions of pounds to cancer research.
Ely Standard readers have taken Liam into their hearts and initial fund-raising effort is truly amazing, everything from the little old ladies who bring bags of coins into the office to sponsored walks and runs that can raise thousands of pounds.
