52 Lives

#390 Jan

Request: Donations / Gifts / Messages

This week, we’d like to help two young children (aged 4 and 11) who recently lost their mum.

Their aunt, Jan, had a phone call from school saying her nephew hadn’t been collected and they couldn’t reach his mum. They later found out that his mum had sadly passed away at home, while she was caring for her younger child.

The two children are now living with their aunt. She was already a single mum to children of her own and so she is now caring for five children (including a new baby).

They are living in a 2 bedroom property, which is completely unsuitable for so many of them. They are on the waiting list for a larger property but it could be a long time until they are allocated one. Jan is struggling with storage, the children’s beds don’t fit properly, one of their mattresses was badly damaged in the move, and she can’t afford for the children to join the after-school clubs they’d like to go to.

They were nominated by their support worker, who said: “Jan stepped in to take care of the children after the tragic loss of their mum. They have had a really difficult time and have all had to make so many adjustments, but are really coming together to try to support each other. There are challenging times ahead, and any support you can give would make a huge difference to their life”

With your help, we’d like to help make their home more liveable and also cover the cost of holiday clubs and after school activities for all of the children.

What We Need

1. Donations: 100% of what you give will be used to help this family. You can donate online or by text using the details below. 

2. Gifts from a wishlist: We've set up an Amazon wishlist with some of the smaller things they need - to buy a gift, please click the link below. You will be taken to Amazon where you can choose an item that will be sent directly to the family (just tick 'this is a gift' and choose the gift registry address when you check out).

3. Kind messages: To send a kind message for the family, please write it in the form below or post it to: 52 Lives (390), PO Box 3154, Reading, RG1 9AT.

BUY A GIFT

DONATE ONLINE

What We Did

Thanks to all of you, we were able to buy some storage furniture to help them fit their belongings into the space they have. We also paid for some summer activities and theme park tickets for the children, clothing (including these new trainers!), food vouchers, and we will also be able to provide some support with bills to help Jan get on top of things. And finally, Jan was still in some debt for her sister’s funeral, so we paid the final few hundreds pounds of that for her too.

We also received so many kind cards and messages, which have all been passed along. Thank you to everyone who helped. And a big thank you to Prizeology and Gala Bingo for their support, and to Scamp & Dude for the wonderful Sleep Buddy teddies.