“It’s not just for Christmas, it’s something we need all year round”: Children’s hospice’s Christmas tree fundraiser

Francis House Children’s Hospice returned to the MediaCityUK Lowry Outlet for its 16^th annual Christmas tree bid, setting up 40 trees in the hope to raise funds.

The trees are sponsored by companies and organisations such as Swizzle, Manchester United and MediaCityUK themselves. The sponsors decorate the tree to their branding with things such as gift cards, signed shirts and goodies, the trees are them bided on by the public.

Francis House Children’s Hospice looks after children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions whilst supporting the children’s families. The charity sees 500 families a year come through the doors.

Francis House fundraising officer, Julie Williams, 56, said: “Anybody can take part as long as they’re prepared to sponsor the tree. And by sponsoring the tree, they provide the decorations and the gifts that go with the tree.”

Ms Williams went onto express how supportive the companies have been: “They’re very supportive of Francis House in sweetie terms, so if ever we need gifts for, raffles or to sponsor a tree, they will provide it.

“We can say that this year was a big success, and the signs are that it has exceeded last year’s total of £14,500.”

“DLA Piper, for example, they’ve chosen Francis House, their charity of the year, so they’re going to support us for 12 months and that means they’ll get involved with any events that we’re organising, and they’ll try and raise funds themselves independently as well.”

Ms Williams explained that the idea originally came from her fundraising manager who had just came back from South Africa and had saw the concept over there and thought it was a wonderful idea to raise money.

She said: “Of course, people are a little bit more sentimental at Christmas and decide, they want to do something because it’s Christmas time and we get quite a lot of gifts donated to the children in the Hospice.

“It’s quite amusing because some people will come in and literally put a bin bag over the top of the tree and carry it out, fully decorated.

“Some people come and take the decorations off and leave the tree behind and just take the decorations and the gifts and then some people just want the gifts. If people don’t take the tree, then Francis House can reuse it next year and it’ll save us buying a tree”.