King’s Sixth Form charity committee answered the call when Help the Aged set a Sixth Form Challenge.
Senior Regional Fund Raising Manager Christine Blease explained the challenge. “Help the Aged needs £70 million each year to fund its services both in Britain and overseas and all that money comes from fundraising measures alone. We were thinking what can we do that is new and our answer was to approach the youngest members of the community to support the oldest members of the community.”
Mrs Blease, who received a cheque for £1,500 from the King’s charity workers, added: “It is a magnificent effort. 28,000 elderly people die each year in this country from preventable illness; one million old people in this country will not have talked to anyone for a month and one million will spend Christmas alone. These facts probably seem irrelevant to many young people, their own old age is such a distant prospect, but believe me it will creep up on them too.”
King’s students raised the money with cake sales, tombolas, raffles and donations. Rebecca said: “We were all quite shocked by some of the statistics about loneliness and deprivation in old age and everyone in the Sixth Form wanted to help.”
If you have a fundraising scheme for Help the Aged Christine would love to hear from you on 0161 494 7887.
Pictured from left to right are: Rebecca, Tom, Katherine, Harriett and Martin.
