I had the pleasure to sit with Chris Roys the Chief Executive Officer of Jessie May Trust at the recent Bristol Business Network event.  During our conversation Chris spoke about the great work that the Jessie May Trust does with providing, palliative, end of life & bereavement care for terminally ill children & their families – a really good example being their purple club – which provides bereaved parents with an opportunity over lunch to talk about how their loss has affected them and to deal with this.  Chris used the example of the question that we often get asked “Do you have children?”.  Easy to answer if you do but what if your child (ren) have died – do you answer “yes but they’ve died” or “no” and you’d feel that you were not being true (to you and to the children) – the purple club provides people who have suffered the loss of their children a place where they can meet others who have been through the same traumatic events.

Integral to the success of Jessie May Trust are the volunteers who give their time freely to support the work that goes on.  Chris then asked if I would share the following…….

Volunteer Co-ordinator needed

To help develop and recruit volunteers to various roles in Jessie May

Someone with

• Time on their hands (recently retired)
• Able to commit to 12 months and minimum 2 days per week
• Good organisational skills
• Outgoing with good people skills
• Desire to help make a difference

If you are interested or know someone who may be interested then please contact Chris – chris.roys@jessiemay.org.uk

We then talked about how businesses can help through the

The Jessie May Caring at Work £1000 Challenge

How your Business can make a difference

Could your business raise £1,000 by May 1st 2014 to help sponsor a Jessie May Nurse?

Jessie May Nurses use their incredible skills to enrich children’s short lives and provide high quality care for the whole family. It’s vitally important that, when a child does eventually die, their family has lots of positive memories to look back on.

Caring at Work is a new initiative enabling local business to support local families.  In return for your commitment to raise £1,000 to help sponsor a Jessie May Nurse we’ll support your business every step of the way and promote your involvement with us through the local press, radio and TV which in turn will raise your company profile in the local area.  Your customers and suppliers will see how seriously you take your social responsibility towards the local community.

You will have great fun raising funds – it’s good for staff morale and an excellent way to build teamwork across your business.

Willow Chiropractic, Ergochair, BAWA, Hilton Bristol Hotel, Datasharp, Mayfair Town and Country, Desynit and Simply Health are among some of those businesses already part of this.

All participating companies will be invited to a Jessie May reception and award ceremony on 12^th May 2014 to Thank You for your participation and to celebrate International Nurse’s Day.

Please contact Lindsey.horton@jessiemay.org.uk for further information on how to become involved – we really need your help!

Our conversation covered the soon to be held Firewalk

All and all some great ways that you can support the work that Jessie May Trust does in the Bristol, North Somerset & South Gloucestershire areas – and soon to be Bath!

Contact The Jessie May Trust

35 Old School House,

Kingswood Foundation Estate,

Britannia Road,

Kingswood,

Bristol,

BS15 8DB

Fundraising & General Admin:

Tel: +44 (0) 117 961 6840

Fax: +44 (0) 117 960 7783

Care Team:

Tel: +44 (0) 117 958 2172

You can also get in touch by e-mailing us at info@jessiemay.org.uk