Determined students step forward to help local cancer patients
STUDENTS from a Bournemouth school have pledged to raise money for a small local cancer charity left struggling by Covid.
Pupils from Ennis House at Glenmoor & Winton Academies voted for Dorset Cancer Care Foundation (DCCF) to benefit from their fundraising in 2022 after learning how the charity’s fundraising events programme had been decimated by the pandemic.
Teacher Callum Whitelaw, who is Head of Ennis House, explained: “Charity fundraising is extremely important to all our students and the houses and fundraising teams within them take the responsibility of coming up with innovative events very seriously.
“Unfortunately, most of us know someone who has been affected by cancer, be that a family member or friend. So, we were all very impressed to learn how DCCF gives financial assistance to many Dorset families which are struggling because of a cancer diagnosis.
“When it was suggested Ennis take this small but very committed charity as its charity of the year the students were all very keen to help.”
Ennis House charity captain Beth Dunkerly said: “We have around 400 pupils in Ennis House and between us we have already raised £800 for DCCF through different events since January.
“We now have some great fundraising ideas for the rest of the year including bake sales and sporting events and we aim to increase this amount considerably.”
House captain Jason Souza agreed: “Mr Whitelaw is already running in the Bournemouth Marathon Festival for DCCF and I hope to form a pupils’ team to also take place in this event.
“We are very competitive with the other houses when it comes to raising as much money as possible for our charity and we intend to be able to hand over a sizeable cheque to DCCF by the end of the year.”
Andrea Campbell from DCCF met with the students to express the charity’s thanks for their support.
She said: “DCCF has been hit hard by the pandemic, with the majority of our events either cancelled or postponed for a considerable amount of time. We are now up and running again and want to start helping local families as quickly as possible. So, the news that Ennis House will be fundraising for us is fantastic. It has been extremely inspiring to hear all about their plans and to know this great bunch of young people are supporting us and we hope they will inspire other schools, businesses and groups to offer their support too.”
The public can also contribute to the school’s fundraising for DCCF via: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ennis21
People wishing to support or donate to DCCF are asked to email: admin@dccf.co.uk
