SHOPPERS across Evesham and Pershore have played their part in deciding which community projects in Worcestershire bag up to £25,000.
Supermarket giant Tesco has marked its centenary year with two special Bags of Help funding rounds with a huge £100,000 funding pot in Worcestershire.
The first of these special rounds concentrated on groups delivering health and wellbeing benefits. Grace Kelly Childhood Cancer Trust has been awarded £25,000, St Richard’s Hospice has been awarded £15,000 and Focus, Supporting Local Cancer Care in the Three Counties (Gloucestershire, Worcestershire & Herefordshire) has been awarded £10,000.
Bags of Help, run in partnership with Groundwork, sees funding awarded to thousands of local community projects every year. So far in Worcestershire, Bags of Help has awarded £785,152 to 223 local projects.
Grace Kelly Childhood Cancer Trust is using the funding for its highly successful ‘Hospital to Classroom’ project, which works to help keep children who are ill in hospital connected to school life through AI technology, including AV1 robots.
Founder Jen Kelly said: “When a child is diagnosed with cancer, they face extended hospital stays which affects their learning as well as leaving them feeling isolated from their friends.
“We’ve already had overwhelming success with our pilot project for five year old Oscar Saxelby-Lee, whose robot ‘Ozzybot’ sits at his desk in the classroom at Pitmaston Primary School while providing a live video feed to Oscar’s tablet in the hospital – meaning he can continue to participate in lessons from his bed.
“Everyone loves it – Oscar and his friends can keep in touch, while his parents can be reassured that he’s able to have some kind of normal school life.”
St. Richard’s Hospice, meanwhile, is using the grant for a purpose-built physiotherapy gymnasium, equipped with specialist equipment including a Motomed exercise bike, three stack multi gym and treadmill.
Physiotherapist Gill Jubb said: “Exercise has been shown to be of great benefit in the palliative stages of life limiting diseases including cancer and heart disease and can relieve symptoms, reduce stress and anxiety and depression and improve sleep.
Another voting round is underway in stores now, with even more projects sharing in the cash. Customers are invited to vote for the project they wish to receive the top prize using blue tokens handed out at checkouts.
The funding will reach more than 30 regions, with an incredible £3,300,000 up for grabs in total.
Visit www.tesco.com/bagsofhelp for more.
