Horfield mum of two, Emily McGuinness, has been busy recently helping to organise a fantastic fundraising event in aid of Southmead Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and Mums the Word Appeal (which supports Southmead Hospital’s maternity services).

The Easter Charity Family Funday, which is to be held from 12 – 4pm on Saturday 4th April at the Eastfield Inn in Henleaze, will include stalls, the Easter Bunny, a barbecue, music, arts & crafts and Frozen’s Anna and Elsa will also be visiting, along with local comedian Justin Lee Collins.

This will be the second fundraiser recently at the Eastfield Inn and it follows a packed event last year which raised a staggering £10,000 towards NICU and the Stroke Association!

Emily chose NICU and the Stroke Association as last year’s chosen causes for personal reasons.

She chose the Stroke Association because her dad has suffered a series of strokes over the years and Southmead Hospital’s NICU, after her second child, Isla, who has ongoing health issues, spent 10 weeks there following her birth in 2012 (you can read more about Emily and Isla’s experience of NICU, here).

Emily describes her experience of NICU:

“The care that babies get in NICU is second to none. Each and every member of staff looked after Isla fantastically well and if it wasn’t for them she wouldn’t be here today!”

As well as all the fun activities for children and families at this year’s event at the Eastfield Inn, there will also be a Mulberry handbag up for grabs. Raffle tickets can be purchased towards the bag before the event for £6 each or two for £10 at Sweet Pea in Westbury-on-Trym or at the event itself, where raffle tickets will be drawn at the end of the day.

All money raised from the raffle tickets for the Mulberry Bag will go towards a project that Emily and her family are working on to improve Isla’s surroundings and thus enable her to continue to make progress.

Emily explains:

“Our current project for Isla is to create a safe sensory garden for her. Our garden is currently a building site and isn’t safe for her because it slopes and is dangerous.”

“She turns 3 this year and still cannot walk. So when she is in the garden she rolls everywhere and due to the slope she rolls into the fence. We haven’t been able to start this project because we haven’t been able to save enough money but all monies raised from the sale of the bag will go to this.”

“Local company Upper Grass are kindly donating the artificial turf for Isla’s sensory area and CWT Landscape Supplies are kindly donating some turf for the lawn area. There is however a lot of work to be done to make this a garden Isla can use. We have set up a ‘gofundme’ account to help raise funds for the garden which will cost in the region of £2000.”

So, readers of Bishopston Mum, please do come along to the Easter Charity Family Fundraiser on Saturday 4th April, it is sure to be a great event with lots of fun things to do for all of the family!

In the meantime, if you would also like to donate any money towards creating a safe, sensory garden for Isla, please visit
http://www.gofundme.com/ltdntc

For details of all upcoming events in the local area, please see the Bishopston Mum Events Calendar.