Alex’s Wish charity has raised an amazing £1m
‘Would like to thank every single one of our supporters’
MOUNTSORREL-BASED charity Alex’s Wish is celebrating smashing the magic £1 million fund-raising target.
The charity revealed at their recently held annual ball.
Emma Hallam, founder of Alex’s Wish and mum to Alex, after whom the charity is named, said: “Six years ago when I set up Alex’s Wish I set ourselves the ambitious target to raise £1,000,000 to help fund vital research and clinical trials to help bring about effective treatments and, ultimately, a cure for the devastating, life limiting muscle wasting condition - Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
“Six years later I was able to announce at our recent ball, that we had done it! It’s with thanks to our fabulous supporters and the local business community who has helped us achieve our initial target – and we would like to thank every single of them for their support so far.
“The money raised has been invested in several research projects, clinical trials and supporting trial centres in the UK to run clinical trials, helping us move ever closer to effective treatments for Duchenne.
“Our latest commitments include promising gene therapy and stem cell therapy. A huge amount of progress has been made, but we still have a long way to go. We are committed to continuing to drive this momentum forward to help this generation of children living with Duchenne.
“We are now working towards securing our next £1,000,000 and will not stop until a cure is found.”
The new fund-raising challenge has received its first contribution from donations made at their annual ball.
Zoe Edwards, fund-raising manager, said: “We raised an amazing £20,000 at this year’s event. Donations were made via our raffle and ‘Win a Holiday’ prize draw as well as from a silent auction and exciting live auction!
“Prizes for the live auction included afternoon tea at the Ritz which was kindly donated by New St Chambers, a Fab Clinics beauty treatment which was donated by Fab Clinics, as well as a Belmond British Pullman experience for two and a Europa Park Germany getaway which were both donated by our headline sponsor – Next.
“I would also like to thank our drinks sponsor - Morgan Sindall - as well as 2XL Commercial Finance for their support of our event..”
Emma added: “Every single week in the UK two families will receive the same diagnosis that we did and we will not rest until we find a cure for all boys with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and stop this terrible disease in its tracks.”
To find out more about Alex’s Wish and Duchenne or to get involved in any of their planned 2020 events and fund-raising activities, visit www.alexswish.co.uk