Donna Louise Trust - Dress Down Fridays

Donna Louise Hackney was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis at just 3 months old. She sadly died in 1996 at the age of 16. Recognising the urgent need for a children’s hospice in Staffordshire and South Cheshire, Donna’s mum and a small group of people set up the Donna Louise Trust in 2000 as a registered charity.

The main aim of the Charity is to provide respite and end of life care for children with life limiting conditions. In the early days of the Charity this was done in the homes of the Charity members.

After years of fundraising by the Charity, Gladman’s homes. generously built the 2 million pound property free of charge at Trentham Lakes. The hospice now called “Treetops” provides a valuable service to over 250 families including respite care, youth groups, counselling and bereavement services.

The facility is staffed by 51 paid staff and over 150 volunteers. Running the facility costs over 2 million pounds annually with only around £300,000 being provided by the government. Funding is a continual concern for the Charity.

SES has donated £300 to the Charity which has been raised by ‘staff dress down’ days and a donation from the Company. The cheque was handed to Chris Belyavin a member of the fundraising team at Treetops on Monday 18th January 2010. Chris stated "every donation to the trust is valuable even £20 pays the electricity bill for a day. The facility costs £40 thousand pounds a week to run and every little helps"

Thank you to all who have taken part in the dress down days to raise money for this worth while cause.

Fundraising events are held during the year by the trust please see www.donnalouisetrust.org / for further information.