August 2025: Summer Catch-Up
And just like that we’re moving into the final third of the year!
Welcome to our summer round up, and what an incredible summer it has been so far – in fact, what an incredible year it has been so far.
Embarking on 21 for 21 back in January was a pretty nervy time. Can we deliver on 21 things? Can we think of 21 things? Luckily, we had a lot of solid ideas in place early doors, and all of a sudden we had events flooding in with even more popping up as the year has gone on.
What we’ve tried to do this year behind the scenes is really lay some solid foundations as to where all of your amazing donations are being spent. Chris & Ryan met with staff from the Leeds TCT unit earlier this year, and have since made connections in Hull & Newcastle. The idea of these meetings now being that the staff can come to the charity directly for funds to get money onto the wards quicker. This spending can be anything from new PlayStation games to workshops such as magic sessions where patients can learn new skills on the ward during a fun lesson from a professional.
It’s really important to us that we have a story to tell. Chris & Joanne know what life is like on those wards, so we want to improve those experiences as much as we can, and make people’s time on the wards as comfortable as possible under the circumstances. We’re also funding breakfast clubs in Leeds and Newcastle, as well as pizza nights on the wards with donations of Domino’s vouchers.
Looking back over the past 6 months, we’ve had some amazing events going on. For maybe the first time we’ve also seen our supporters really put themselves through things for A Shining Light, showcasing our charity in different ways. Ben stepped into the boxing ring, Ryan suffered through a marathon, and we led an amazing 41 people through the Yorkshire Three Peaks. Our amateur team of rowers also fell short of the final of the York Rotary Dragon Boat race by just two seconds in their first ever attempt. It really has been a year of inspirational stories so far.
Our new partnership with The Oaks Golf Club & Spa has proved to be a very promising one, with a number of events hosted there already this year, and still our own Golf Day (Aug 22) and Summer Gala (Sep 13) still to come. We also received a surprise call from Siemens of Goole and were honoured to receive a £4,000 donation as part of their annual cricket fundraiser. But the biggest surprise came when we received a £27,400 donation from Chris Turner, father of Kieran who sadly passed last year – Chris was aware of the work we’re doing, and very kindly gave us the funds from his recent golf day in Lincolnshire to ensure that money benefits people just like Kieran. Keep your eyes peeled on our socials for a proper presentation soon.
Although the summer might nearly be over, there’s still plenty of work to be done. We’re currently working on a tennis tournament at Goole Tennis Centre (Sep 21), our annual comedy night will be back in October (Oct 9) and those names will be unveiled soon. We’ll also have our famous Christmas bingo with some extra special prizes and we’ll be hitting the streets with Howden Town Council again for the Santa Sleigh Route.
We said we wanted to raise £21,000 this year, and at the time of writing we now stand proudly at £17,750 for 2025 with plenty of events still to come.
As always, we couldn’t do any of this without the support of so many incredible people. Thank you never seems quite enough, but thank you everyone.
Keep shining x