Yorkshire children’s cancer charity Candlelighters has celebrated the return of its largest annual fundraiser, ‘Pink It Up’ week.
Every year Candlelighters urges the community to get involved in pink themed fundraising activities to support children and families affected by childhood cancer.
‘Pink It Up’ is the charity’s flagship campaign. Since 2019 Candlelighters have encouraged people across Yorkshire to help them paint the county pink through various, pink-themed fundraising activities and challenges to raise funds and awareness.
This year’s week-long fundraising event saw businesses, schools and communities across Yorkshire throwing their all into pink themed fundraising to raise money for children with cancer.
From bake sales, parties and crafting activities to fancy dress competitions and window display decorating, the people of Yorkshire came together to show their solidarity for children with cancer.
At Little Learners, a nursery in Kippax, the staff and children really got stuck into fundraising with lots of activities across the week. From the children throwing flour, water and pies at staff, to a bake sale and a sponsored walk around the local community, everyone had lots of fun and raised almost £1,600.
And at Clarion Solicitors in Leeds, staff enjoyed raising funds for the worthy cause by holding a pink dress-up day and decorating their office pink.
The Candlelighters Family Support Team who work at Leeds Children’s Hospital hosted a range of pink-themed events on the oncology wards to bring the pink fun to the children and parents. Children were able to get involved in activities such as pie splatting the Family Support Workers, and staff dressed up in pyjamas and fancy dress, with special treats such as pink marshmallow and fruit kebabs available for the children to snack on.
Amy Laycock, Family Support Worker at Candlelighters said “The children thoroughly enjoyed taking part in all the Pink It Up fun on the wards and day unit. Making sure there’s lots of fun and distractions in the hospital is an important part of our role, and Pink It Up is a particularly special week for us. I think the children’s favourite activity was definitely splatting us in the face with cream pies, I lost count of the number of pies thrown in my face but hearing their laughter was absolutely worth every minute of it!”
Around 150 children in Yorkshire are diagnosed with cancer each year. Since its inception in 1976, Candlelighters has been committed to offering extensive emotional, practical, and financial support to affected families and facilitating research to better the lives and outcomes of children facing diagnosis and treatment.
Tom Robertshaw, Head of Fundraising at Candlelighters said “We are humbled that families and so many other people across the county come together to raise money to support children with cancer. Taking part in fundraising like Pink It Up is crucial in allowing Candlelighters to continue to support families during and beyond treatment, to ensure they never feel alone and know that there is a support network around them. I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has taken part in Pink it Up this year.”
To find out more about Candlelighters, you can visit their website: www.candlelighters.org.uk
How Candlelighters help children and families across Yorkshire
Pink It Up raises funds for the charity to provide the best quality services they can to families who are facing the turmoil of cancer diagnosis, families like The Marshalls. Katie and Jowayne, mum and dad of Arlo, took him to the hospital with suspected lactose intolerance when he was six months old. When Arlo was diagnosed with leukaemia, their lives were completely changed and they were brought to the realisation that their following two years would be spent predominantly in and out hospital.
When families face a childhood cancer diagnosis, they face emotional difficulty alongside having to travel to and from hospital, finding lodgings in Leeds where most children from Yorkshire receive cancer treatment, and having to take time of work to care for their poorly child.
As well as the heartache of childhood cancer, families are often unprepared for the financial requirements of the diagnosis. Due to Arlo being under 12 months of age at the beginning of his treatment, seven months of his treatment needed to be conducted within hospital.
With a child of less than one year of age, Katie needed to remain in hospital to provide Arlo with the care he needed whilst Jowayne needed to take time out of work to support Katie and Arlo. With the cost of petrol, food and lodgings, Katie and Jowayne say that they would not have been able to cope financially had it not been for the aid of Candlelighters.
Since, Arlo’s family and their community have consistently shown support during Pink It Up week, with this being the third year of participation. The family have raised over £9,000 for the charity so far this year through their fundraising efforts in order to thank Candlelighters for their support during such a difficult time.