Carers make waves at Radio Wave

Christmas has come early for Carers Trust Fylde Coast after an all day charity auction at Radio Wave raised £13,225 for the charity’s new Three in Five appeal.

The figure represents a significant step forward in the charity's fund - and awareness - raising campaign and also a breakthrough in terms of involving more businesses in the often unrecognised contribution of carers, including the workforce, who are hidden in plain sight in the community.

The campaign, so named because three in five of us will become unpaid carers at some point, aims to raise £1.4m to make good the mess left by metal thieves in the charity’s headquarters in waiting, the former Blenheim House on Newton Drive, Blackpool, and convert the property into a beacon of best practice across Britain.

Businesses are being urged to remember the carers in their own workforce and the challenges they often face - and to support the campaign through donations or work in kind.

The charity was given the property for its use for the next 20 years by Beaverbrooks Charitable Trust earlier this year. The 10 year old charity already helps 4,000 unpaid carers aged five to 95 and intends to reach thousands more.

Charity chief, Michelle Smith, admits: "We saw past the damage to the potential. The building has so much going for it and carers have so little. We owe them a brighter future."

The charity is going all out to boost the profile of unpaid carers - as opposed to paid care givers - in the community and has recently appointed former young carers champion Lauren Codling, 21, as business partnerships lead.

Lauren, a passionate and eloquent speaker, has already addressed politicians and health policy strategists at national level to fight the carers' corner.

The charity won extensive coverage in the local press and on Radio Lancashire through national carers' week and its own 100 day corporate cash quest for carers - when businesses are invited to take a £50 refundable starter stake and built it into more. The event raised £16,000 - with virtually half of that raised by a series of events at Sandcastle WaterPark.

It has since featured in BBC's Children in Need coverage, been shortlisted for a prestigious Health Services Journal award - the only charity listed in a carers category dominated by clinical commissioning groups.

And two of its carers have won recognition too - Eunice Nicholls, 94, became the Blackpoool Gazette's Best of Health carer of the year after it was revealed she had been caring for her husband with dementia for years, her circumstances only becoming known when she was admitted to hospital herself. She has since become actively involved in the charity, acting as a mentor and 'gran' to others as well as enjoying more of a social life.

And Tara Bragg, 21, won the Radio Wave Heroes in the Community carer of the year award after moving veteran presenter Andy Mitchell with her poignant account of life as a carer. Tara looks after her two sisters.

It was Tara's situation and that of three other carers who spoke at the Cash Quest for Carers awards that prompted Radio Wave station manager Paula Davies to gift the station's annual charity auction to the Blackpool carers centre.

“It was one of the most moving events I've ever attended," said Paula. "If any charity was worthy of the proceeds of our action it's this one."

More than 120 lots were auctioned to the highest bidders between 8am and 6pm with volunteers from the charity manning the line along with station staff and presenters.

Beaverbrooks, boxer Brian Rose, football legend Jimmy Armfield, Sandcastle Waterpark, Viva, Cuffe and Taylor, Lailas Fine Foods, Viva, Blackpool Zoo, Merlin, Friends of the Illuminations and many more supported the event with donations, or offers of help in kind.

Some items sold for as little as a tenner but others went for several hundred pounds - including Radio Wave's offer of £2000 worth of advertising.

Charity CEO Michelle, who helped man the lines, confessed: "I was humbled, elated and very close to tears myself at the sheer generosity of all these people. I couldn't believe it as the figure just went up and up.

"This wasn't just supported by Blackpool's business and leisure and retail community but many individuals too - and that commitment went right across the Fylde Coast. And the same went for those who bid for the lots. They did it for one reason alone - they care. And our carers now know they care about them."