Charity
The National Three Peaks Challenge is a well known phrase amongst the more adventurous. This challenge involves climbing the highest mountains in Scotland, England and Wales within 24 hours. On Saturday 6th August 2011 the SEEQ team will be attempting the challenge to help raise money for Khalsa Aid.
Following the very successful five-a-side football tournament set up by the Sikh Activity group SEEQ, on 1st November 2008 a massive £4131.04 was raised for local children’s charity Promise Dreams. The tournament brought local communities together to celebrate peace, equality, unity and forgiveness amongst other qualities we share in our community.
Promise Dreams was created in 2001 and made a promise themselves to raise money for seriously and terminally ill children. They have helped provide treatment, help and support for the children and their families. So far they have delivered dream holidays, toys and medical treatment that can help save their lives or just help improve the quality of their lives. They have even helped children meet their favourite celebrities. Whatever the request Promise Dreams make a promise to deliver a dream.
Of course Promise Dreams would not be able to do this on their own and thanks to events like the five a side football tournament they are able to keep their promise. It’s organisations like SEEQ that make this possible. The money raised through the tournament has already been put to good use and already begun to make dreams come true.
The money has helped Daniel, a 17 year old boy who is living with inoperable Ewings Sarcoma. This is an extreme form of bone cancer and has restricted Daniel from living like other teenagers. Unfortunately Daniel’s treatment has not been successful and it is unknown how long he has left to live. This is why Promise Dreams make all the difference and answered Daniel and his families prayers when all they ask for is to enjoy and experience as many different things as possible eachand every day that they share together.
Thanks to the generous community in which we live in, Daniel and his family will be able to spend quality time together, away from the hospital environment. They will now be able to share a family weekend away and through the efforts of everybody involved in the tournament and the supporting community this has now become a reality for Daniel, not just a dream!
Daniel is not alone; he is just one of many children suffering with a life threatening illness, as is Alice, a 7 year old girl who is currently living with a condition called San Fillipo’s disease. This is a chromosome abnormality that means Alice is unable to break down sugars effectively. This consequently means the sugar stores up within her body and causes damage to the skeleton and major organs. She can no longer do the things she once did as a toddler. Alice is fully aware her body has deteriorated and longs for the day she can ride a bike again. This is something so many of us take for granted, yet for Alice it would be a dream come true.
Thanks to the money raised in November it has meant Alice will once again be able to take part in the family bike rides again. She will now be able to safely experience the wind blowing in her hair and laugh and play with her family again. The money has brought Alice a Duet Tandem wheelchair, which means she can now enjoy the great outdoors with her family.
These are just 2 examples of how we can help give children a reason to keep on fighting their illnesses and offer them a little bit of happiness to help pull them through tough times. You can see the difference to these children’s lives already, but why stop now?