Students race to raise over £8,800 for children’s charity

In October, hundreds of St Helen's School students walked, skipped, ran and jogged around a 1km fun-run course within the school grounds to raise money for The Sick Children's Trust, a charity which provides free, high-quality ‘Home from Home’ accommodation, as well as emotional and practical support, to families with sick children in hospital in the UK.

PE teacher Mrs Arnot, who organised the fundraising fun-run, said, “We particularly wanted to support the Sick Children’s Trust because it has provided invaluable support to a member of our St Helen’s community. Mrs Helen Sinclair, who teaches History in Senior School, gave birth to her son last year. Unfortunately he has been seriously unwell since birth and has yet to leave hospital. The Sick Children’s Trust has enabled Mrs Sinclair and her family to live very close to Great Ormond Street Hospital and to spend as much time as possible with her son.”

Tina Thake from The Sick Children's Trust attended a recent Senior School assembly at St Helen’s School to receive a cheque for £8,803. She explained to students how this amount will make a difference to the families of children with long-term illnesses.

Guilford Street House Manager, Tina, said: “We’re absolutely thrilled to receive £8,803 from St Helen’s School and would like to say a huge thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, to all the students and staff for raising such an incredible amount.

“When a child is seriously ill, it’s an incredibly difficult time and The Sick Children’s Trust helps ease some of the worries families have by keeping them together by their child’s side in free ‘Home from Home’ accommodation. As a charity we completely rely on voluntary donations to support families is the worst imaginable situations, so we couldn’t be more grateful to St Helen’s School for choosing to fundraise for us.”