Every year at Leapfrogg we support a charity through various fundraising activities, both as a team but also as individuals taking on personal challenges. This year we are raising money for a very special cause The Tree of Hope.
Lyra is the daughter of our senior account manager, Gwen’s, close friends. She was born in July 2012 with severe brain damage and congenital CMV – a common but little known condition, which causes jaundice, brain damage, liver problems, hearing loss and vision problems. CMV is a common virus that can affect people of all ages with no signs or symptoms; however it can be very dangerous to unborn babies and cause severe health problems. Lyra was also born with Hepatosplenmegaly, which stopped her vital organs working properly and Thrombocytopenia which affected her blood and made her very ill. She is severely brain damaged as a result of the virus, is blind and has cerebral palsy.
Lyra is not even two years old, yet her life so far has been very difficult and challenging for both her and her family. By raising money for The Tree of Hope charity, we hope to make Lyra’s life just that little bit better by helping support the family with the expensive therapies, treatments and equipment needed to improve Lyra’s standard of life and keep her smiling. Our aim is to raise enough money to help Lyra attend the Brainwave Centre and the Snowdrop programme, both specially developed for children like Lyra, where she can receive treatments and support to help her reach her full potential.
We’ve already got the ball rolling on our fundraising by organising ‘Lunch for Lyra’ sessions once a month. On the first Thursday of every month, a selection of Frogger’s cook a lunch dish for the rest of the team to enjoy and we all donate what we’d usually spend on lunch for the pleasure of sitting down together and enjoying some home cooked delicacies. So far, we’ve been treated to stuffed jacket potatoes, celeriac, bramley apple, blue cheese and walnut soup, flourless brownies, halloumi and cous cous salad and banoffee pie and raised well over £100 so far. Beats a sandwich any day!
We are also planning lots of other activities throughout the year to raise money for Lyra, so do watch this space.
Alongside fundraising as a team, a couple of Leapfrogger’s are taking on their own personal challenges to support the cause.
In June, Gwen and her husband will be braving the beast that is the Wolf Run in support of Lyra. The Wolf Run is a 10k off-road run featuring a series of man-made and natural obstacles located throughout the course.
In July, our office and HR manager, Libby, and her other half, will be donning their lycra for Lyra and cycling The South Downs Way – a 100 mile journey across just two days. The ride includes some very tough terrain with over 10,000 feet of climbing as well as carrying all their equipment to camp overnight. Ouch!
You can support both Libby and Gwen on their challenges via their individual Just Giving pages here:
Libby: http://www.justgiving.com/Leapfrogg-Ltd1
Gwen: http://www.justgiving.com/Gwen-Tredinnick
We like any excuse to get creative, so to track our fundraising progress, we spent an evening creating a tree to put up in the office. Every time we raise money, we fill up the tree with leaves, birds, insects etc to represent the money we’ve raised so far. I think you’ll agree, it’s growing nicely!
If you’d like to help us support this very deserving cause, we’ve set up a Just Giving fundraising page here – any donation would be greatly appreciated and would go a long to helping little Lyra.
Stay tuned for updates on our fundraising progress this year and thank you in advance for any support and donations you make.