Children’s hospices team up with North Wales-based jewellers to bring their ‘biggest prize ever’ in annual Christmas raffle

Hope House and Tŷ Gobaith Children’s Hospices have announced their annual Christmas raffle will have its biggest ever prize of £10,000.

The hospices are facing a deficit of £1.25m due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is understood, so money raised from the raffle will go straight to covering losses.

They will join up with North Wales-based jewellers Clogau to offer £6,000 for first prize, £2,500 for second prize and £1,500 for third prize.

Simi Epstein, Director of Fundraising, said: “We were expecting to end the year with a massive shortfall in income, but further lockdowns in Wales, and now in England, are going to hit us even more with our charity shops closing once again.

“Every year we get fantastic support for our raffle, which plays a huge part in helping us provide care for the children and families who need us.

“This year it has taken on a new level of importance and we hope our supporters, who we have posted raffle tickets too, will be as generous as they’ve been in the past.

“We are also hoping that even more people who believe in what we do and who want to help in these challenging times will get behind us, go online and buy some tickets, and perhaps even win a spectacular prize!”

Raffle tickets cost £1 each and goes directly to helping more than 750 families who either care for a terminally ill child or whose child has died.

It costs £6.5 million a year to run the hospices, which is increasing due to the pandemic – the likes of PPE estimated to cost £300,000 for example.

Ben Roberts, the Managing Director of Clogau, said getting involved in helping the hospices was something the company felt they had to do.

He said: “We have been supporting the hospices for a number of years and I have, up until COVID-19, been a regular visitor, meeting the children and the families that use the services there.

“The hospices are very positive places. When you spend time getting to know the children and the staff you can really see the fantastic work that is being done and how much the impact the charity makes on people’s lives.

“As soon as I was approached by the fundraising team to see if I wanted to get involved in supporting the raffle I didn’t have to think about it, I said yes straight away.

“We hope that sponsoring the prize money for the raffle will encourage more people to play and in turn support the hospices carrying on with their vital work in our local communities.”

Visit https://www.hopehouse.org.uk/Event/christmas-raffle to buy a book of raffle tickets or call the fundraising office on 01691 671 671 for a book of 20.