The Ardonagh Community Trust's first community grants

The Ardonagh Community Trust's first community grants

Our Group charity, The Ardonagh Community Trust, is proud to announce the recipients of its first round of community grants.

The community grant programme runs quarterly and awards financial support to community initiatives and causes closely linked to our businesses and employees.

We’ve awarded three grants, one for £5,000 and two for £2,500, based on employee submissions from across the Ardonagh family of companies.

Meet the communities and recipients below…

‘Lilac’s little legs’ campaign

Lilac Jackson is a three-year-old girl from Cheltenham who was born critically ill at 34 weeks and at eight months old was diagnosed with spastic diplegia cerebral palsy.

Doctors said she may never walk, but her fighting spirit proved infectious and now her family are on a mission to fulfil Lilac’s dream of being able to chase after her little brother on her own.

A life-changing operation called selective dorsal rhizotomy is the key to helping Lilac walk independently, without pain and without risk of her bones deforming as she gets older, but it is not available under the NHS.

The Jackson family is currently trying to find the £80,000 they need for Lilac’s operation and the 18 months of intensive rehabilitation that will follow.

ACT has awarded a £5000 community grant to the Jackson family which will go towards Lilac’s operation and rehabilitation.

Head of Operations Daniel Cawdron from Towergate Retail’s Cheltenham office is an old work colleague of Lilac’s mum Leila and submitted a community grant application after watching Lilac’s progress on the family’s Facebook page.

He says the family have been fundraising since October 2017a and have already raised £32,000 to pay for the operation.

“When I found out The Ardonagh Group were launching a new charity to support employees and their communities, I immediately knew this would be the perfect platform to support Lilac and her family,” he said.

“The grant means her family can now make a deposit to secure treatment - I’m so thankful ACT is supporting Lilac in it’s first-round of community grants and so are the Jacksons.”

To find out more about Lilac’s condition and the work her family have been doing, visit her Just Giving Page.

The Amman Valley Hospital League of Friends

The Amman Valley Hospital is a small surgery located near Towergate Advisory’s Ammanford office in the heart of Wales and one which has been fundraising continuously for the last five years to offer new facilities and services to their local community.

Margaret Thomas, our Office Manager in Ammanford and big supporter of the Amman Valley Hospital League of Friends, said it’s all about making it easier for residents to access healthcare closer to home.

She submitted an application to fund a new x-ray machine at the hospital so residents of the surrounding Carmarthenshire region no longer need to travel hours for a diagnosis.

ACT has awarded a £2500 grant towards the x-ray machine which Margaret believes will also reduce NHS waiting times at nearby practices.

“It’s the largest donation they’ve ever received so when I shared the great news with the treasurer of the charity he was speechless,” she said.

“When we launched ACT on Go Green Day, we couldn’t wait to get involved in the action and contribute to ACT’s fundraising because we knew one day we’d be able to ask for the Trust’s support for a local cause… and that day has come,” she said.

“This goes to show how much of an impact we can make on local causes through ACT’s different programmes – now our community has benefited first-hand we can’t wait for the next opportunity to fundraise for other communities and local causes in the future.”

Ysgol Pen Y Bryn School

ACT’s final community grant for the first quarter of 2018 goes to another Welsh community, this time Ysgol Pen Y Bryn in Swansea.

The school provides specialised education and support for disabled children, teenagers and young adults as well as overnight facilities to provide respite care for families.

Over the years, family members of the Antur office in Swansea have attended the school and experienced their work first-hand, which made the application a personal one for Insurance Clerk Stephanie Grey.

The £2500 grant from ACT will go towards a replacement minibus to transport students out and about, gaining invaluable social skills through their interactions with the wider Swansea community.

“The school is quite large which means they are limited to how often they can take children out for this critical component of their learning; this is why we are so pleased our grant has been accepted” Stephanie said.