As some of you will know, we don't just work with children's oncology wards in the North of England and Scotland but also issue grants to families whose seriously ill children need a treat. Or, at least, we did give grants until COVID-19 put a brake on our finances and we hit the pause button. I am really keen to get back to making grant payments a...

COVID-19 is proving to be a huge challenge for us all, and initially we decided to carry on making Fletcher's Fund grants and to switch to BACS payment facilities to ensure that all the families involved were protected. This, we thought at the time, was the best course of action. We were inundated with requests, which was fantastic and we are so pl...

In March 2020, Fletcher's Fund achieved registered charity status in Scotland – we're number SC049970. This has taken a lot of work and form filling* but it's been worth it. There are three units in Scotland - in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow – that we'd love to be working with very soon. And there are lots of Scottish families going through toug...

For February's blog, we decided to invite a family that we have supported to share their thoughts and feelings about how we help and what we do. Handing over to Rebecca, mum to Matilda. "Matilda was 5 years and 3 months when she diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia in April 2017. She's now 8. Her siblings are Genevieve who is now 9, Te...

​We're looking to join forces with schools, nurseries or other settings to get involved in our 50p challenge! How will it work? Fletcher's Fund will give a class of average size (30/31 pupils) 50p each - so £15 per class - and we will challenge the class to use that money to fundraise for us. How much can they grow the 50p to? £1, £2, £5 - even mor...

​Wow! I haven't blogged for a while. First up on the old New Year resolution list - BLOG more!  So I'm back at it after a short maternity leave. Archer is now 4 months old, and I went back to work after 8 weeks. I wanted to, as much as anything else. So I'm back to juggling work and the baby. All good fun, and I wouldn't want it any other way!...

Wow! September already. This year is flying! We have had a really busy summer, with lots of supporters getting up and out to do their own fundraising and awareness raising, which has been amazing. From triple ironman challenges to sponsored steps and quizzes and soul nights, there really has being a whole variety of things happening that have been ...

 When we were creating this new website, the developer told me how important blogging was and encouraged me to keep up with it regularly. I promised him I would, so I think I owe Chris an apology! After a stern telling off at a couple of networking events we've seen each other at, I'm finally sitting down to do this!  A lot has being...

Earlier this week I travelled down to south Cumbria for a meeting. I sat there, telling the company about Fletcher, his story and then about how and why the Fund was created. I then moved on to telling them what we've achieved in the 2 years we've being doing this. And for a moment, I was astounded. Life happens so quickly, the charity is constantl...

​Fletcher was a much loved and wanted first child. For a short nine months, we had a wonderfully normal family life, a life of sleepless nights, celebrating the milestones and learning to be parents. Then he got sick. Our life changed again from learning to be parents to learning to be parents of a seriously poorly child. We became cancer parents a...

​Fletcher's Fund is a small charity. We often get overlooked by businesses when it comes to choosing charities to sponsor as we don't have the high profile of some of the nationals. That is fine, our time will come, and we will be up there with the more well-known charities one day – and there are always companies with a focus on local causes so we...

​We were delighted to donate 45 arts and craft bags to Ward 84 of Royal Manchester Children's Hospital in January 2019. This means we are now supplying bags for children in paediatric oncology wards in Manchester, Newcastle and Leeds.

​In September 2018 we took delivery of a VW Transporter, kindly supplied free of charge by a lease hire company. It was incredibly generous of them and we'd usually be shouting their name from the rooftops to thank them but they asked to remain anonymous.The van means that we can transport the bags to the units easily as well as having a great vehi...