500 together

We are pleased to be able to share news of donation number 102 and send a big thank you to the member who nominated   Penistone Food Buddies . Penistone Food Buddies is a food bank that has recently been set up in the area to help people struggling with the cost of living and the challenge so many families face to put food on the table.  The organisers, Julie and Mark, were hugely involved in ‘United for Ukraine’, sending donated goods to those affected by the war in Ukraine, but once that came to a natural end, they saw a need to help local people and have set up Penistone Food Buddies. The focus is on providing basic food to get individuals and families through the weekend, for example cereal, rice, tinned meat and/or veg, and sachets of sauce and/or spices. Our £500 has helped them buy provisions to get them off the ground and up and running. They sent us this message:  “On behalf of Penistone Food Buddies we would like to thank you for your donation of £500. This...

Two of our members, Eve and Adam, sent us this nomination about the challenges their friends were facing after the birth of their baby. Thanks to them for taking the time to tell the story: It is the high quality of people that primarily makes a city great. To our great fortune, Sheffield is blessed with many and you could not wish to meet two better people than John and Christina - two of the kindest, most compassionate people in town. A year ago the couple were blessed with their first child. Things seemed to be going well at first until Christina came down with severe postnatal depression. It was both heartbreaking to see her decline and how she was suffering with it and yet encouraging to see John rally round her and their child. John currently works remotely at home so while he had to get his work done and be available for his work colleagues, to a degree he could also help tend to Christina and her needs. However, with the depression, Christina was spending every waking moment s...

We have made our 100th donation AND we can also celebrate the milestone of giving away £40,000 to these 100 varied recipients since we made our first donation 3 years ago in November 2019.   We really do not know how to thank you all for being a part of this.  It is incredible that your weekly contributions have achieved so much.  Numerous families helped and local organisations supported.   You have genuinely made a difference to so many people - not least to K, the recipient of donation number 100.  Here is her story, told by her wonderful nominator: Leaving your abusive husband is hard.   If you have no family in the area, it's even harder.   If he continues to be abusive but doesn't want you to leave it's harder.  If you are pregnant and have got toddlers it's harder.  If you don't work and have never applied for benefits it's even harder.  Often abused women will leave then go back, for practical reasons.  It can take a fe...

One of our members told us about Donna & her family.  Her son Samuel, who is now nine years old, had a brain stem stroke at 18 months old which left him with hydrocephalus, a weakened side and facial palsy.  He also has epilepsy.  On a recent family holiday in a remote field in Norfolk, Samuel had a massive seizure in the night and the ambulance took 19 minutes to get to them. It was very traumatic for the whole family, particularly as Samuel's 13 year old sister and dad witnessed it too. He has had seizures before but not to this magnitude. Not surprisingly, the family have all struggled to sleep as a result.  Donna has spent night after night watching Samuel while he sleeps, paranoid of a repeat seizure. Our member told us how much a night time sleep monitor/ seizure detector would help the family feel able to sleep, knowing they would be alerted to any issues overnight.  We all know the importance of sleep - and it was our absolute ple...