As some of you may know, a dear friend and former colleague at Gower College Swansea, Hadi Brooks, sadly lost her 13 year old daughter Grace recently after a courageous battle against Leukaemia.

In memory of Grace, staff from the External Funding and Better Jobs, Better Futures Departments at Gower College Swansea will be completing an ‘Everest’ challenge, where they will attempt to climb the height of Everest in a day, using the stairs at the Kingsway Centre. In order to reach the ‘summit’, the three flights of stairs will need to be climbed over 800 times by the team!

The team would really appreciate your support with this challenge and will be raising money for LATCH, a Welsh children’s cancer charity who have been an enormous help to Grace and her family over the last 6 months.

LATCH is most well-known for its on-site family accommodation at the University of Wales Hospital in Cardiff, however they also provide patients and their families with so much more, including:

• Social Work Service

• Treats and get-togethers for parents and family members

• Financial support through grants for e.g. travel, food, rent

• Ward- based family support workers

• Benefits advice

• Emotional support for brothers and sisters

Putting it simply, LATCH makes life easier for children and their families so that they can give their all to their treatment without letting anything else get in their way.

LATCH needs to raise on average £700,000 a year to cover the costs of supporting families. With no paid fundraisers, they rely heavily on the hard work of volunteers and remain proud to have one of the lowest management expenses for a charity in the whole of the UK. Last year alone, over £300,000 was awarded to families in the form of financial grants.