As parents know each year we have a large charity drive on Children in Need day which is our traditional superhero day and we raise money for Children in Need and two other nominated charities which are meaningful to us in Sleepy Hollow.

Our first charity of choice this year is Links 2 Pink which is a charity for people facing all types of illness in the Antrim area. The reason we have chosen this charity is for someone very close to us in Sleepy Hollow who has had great support from this charity in the past year. Everyone of course knows Bronagh our Associate Director, and some of you may know her mother Isobel who worked in our nursery for years. Bronagh's sister Julie (whom we have known in Sleepy Hollow as extended family through both Bronagh and Isobel) was diagnosed with breast cancer last year. Julie's story, like many cancer survivors, is a remarkable one which we would like to share with you.

Having lost both of their parents to cancer, Julie and Bronagh were left as primary carers to their maternal Grandmother following Isobel's sad passing in 2012. Julie moved to Antrim to live with her Grandmother and sadly over a couple of years her health declined resulting in her eventually having to move to a nursing home where she passed away. At the time Julie was so moved by the services needed to the elderly she left her full time employment in an admin role to go to Queens University to train to be a social worker. She excelled in her studies and you will see the photo of her and Bronagh below on her graduation day. Julie also started around the time of going to University to run - starting with couch to 5ks, park runs to eventually marathon running. Shortly after graduating and securing her first post as a social worker Julie was diagnosed with breast cancer and had two surgeries including a mastectomy followed by a long gruelling period of chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy. During all of this time Bronagh was Julies carer and they both had wonderful support from Links 2 Pink. Julie is still in recovery stages but is very much a cancer warrior. In her usual positive mind-set, she has taken this experience and written blogs to support other breast cancer patients. Her outlook is just mind blowing - she has returned to fitness training and is back to running with a goal to do a marathon in 2019. She is also hoping to return to work in early 2019.

https://www.facebook.com/links2pink.co.uk/

Our second charity of choice is in keeping with supporting children who have previously attended Sleepy Hollow with charitable work they are doing through post primary schools. In the past we have helped Jengana and Saphara charities as young people were going to to work in India and Kenya to support children in education or in childrens homes. This year we have had a request for a young person who previously attended Sleepy Hollow and is going out to Tanzania next summer with the charity Making a Difference (MAD) Foundation.

The Mad Foundation helps people in some of the world's poorest countries to help themselves, by working at a grassroots level to develop much needed sustainable community resources. Their objective is to advance education and alleviate poverty in any part of the world. They have helped build and renovate hundreds of schools, built orphanages, clinics, workshops, water and sanitation systems, helped kids with educational scholarships and helped provide sports and health resources throughout Africa, South America, and South East Asia. Money raised for the Mad Foundation will always be used on appropriate projects with the most immediate need.

www.madfoundation.org.uk

Last but not least we will be supporting Children in Need campaign as we have done for the past decade and more.

Last year we raised over £2200 for three worthwhile causes and we hope to be able to match it this year. We are including our first ever Charity Awards Night in our fundraising efforts this year.