The Mark Skinner Campaign
The photo above shows our market stall. We are on Brandon market every Thursday and sell items kindly and very generously donated to us by local community members and supporters of our charity. If you have anything that you no longer use - please think of us!! Items can be delivered to any of our offices - we take anything from ornaments to cycles and lawn mowers! (Books & DVDs are hard to sell - but anything else) THANK YOU!!!!!
Registered Charity No: 1197299
The Mark Skinner Campaign has been going for many years now, we have run events, raised funds and donated to numerous individuals, good causes and groups in the local community.
In July 2021, we took on our biggest challenge yet - to raise funds for a new play park in Brandon in memory of Liam Hills and all the babies and children, no longer with us – who would have loved playing there.
The idea for the new playground was born out of Liam’s own feeling that Brandon’s main play area, at the Town’s Remembrance Playing Fields was outdated and not that interesting. Liam was only 9 years old when he passed away in September 2020, he had been battling cancer since he was 7 years old and had undergone almost three years of chemotherapy, he had also had a full liver transplant. All of this would have been immense for an adult let alone a young boy who should have been enjoying life. The play park would mean so very much to not only Liam’s family and all those who supported both Liam and his family during his illness, but also to all the lovely families who have gone through the worst pain there is, to lose a child.
Whilst raising money for the playground, we also became aware of Bethany, a local girl from Brandon whose family were trying to raise funds for a life changing mobility device. Bethany has a very rare genetic condition that has affected her brain badly. She has never been able to sit up unaided let alone walk. The device needed was called an Innowalk - best described as a motorised standing frame which mimics the walking movement for Bethany, so she gets all the health benefits from walking that we take for granted. We are delighted to say we were able to use some of the funds already collected (with the backing of Liam’s family and our local community) and liaise with local groups and organisations for additional funding. We then liaised and secured a great deal with the company providing the innowalks and Bethany’s innowalk was delivered to her, amid much excitement.
People in the local community and beyond have been an amazing help with our fundraising, however, our target is £120,000.00, so we still have a long way to go and couldn’t do it without this wonderful help. On the 29th December 2021 we were proud to become an official charity with the Charity Commission through hard work from our Trustees, but also because the people in our local community have done and continue to do us proud!! Any support you are able to give would be so appreciated!!!
If you require any more information just let us know.