Each year, we ask our people to nominate a charity that they would like to see us partner with for the next 12 months. For 2022/23, we’re pleased to be helping support the UK’s largest charitable provider of specialist equipment for disabled children, Newlife.

Introducing Newlife

Newlife provides essential equipment to thousands of disabled and terminally ill children across the UK every year. Their nurses support families, their researchers work to improve children’s health and their dedicated team campaigns to get fairer treatment for all.

With around one million disabled and terminally ill children in the UK, thousands rely on Newlife to access the specialist equipment they urgently need. This can be equipment that has been refused by the statutory services or where delays in the provision mean that the child will suffer unnecessarily. Newlife runs the only fast track equipment service in the UK helping those who have struggled to access support elsewhere.

As well as providing essential equipment to support children’s health, Newlife also recognises the therapeutic effect that play can have. This is one of the reasons why Newlife offers a free loan of specialist toys to families who have disabled and terminally ill children. These “Play Therapy Pods” come in different categories depending on the child’s age, abilities and medical needs. They’re delivered direct to the family’s door and are free to use for 12 weeks, when they can be exchanged for another pod.

One of the ways that Newlife raises funds to support all this activity, is through its own recycling and retail business. Newlife recycles brand new goods donated from over 100 major high-street companies, helping them to achieve their environmental and social responsibility policies. Donations are ‘de-labelled’ and sold on at a fraction of the initial cost, providing the opportunity of a ‘second life’ for items that would otherwise end up in landfill. Whether you’re looking to update your wardrobe, home or shoe collection, or simply looking for a gift on a budget, you can shop with Newlife in store, through their online shop.

How we’re getting involved

Part of the process that sees the recycled clothes and other items made available for sale in Newlife’s stores involves teams of people “de-labelling,” removing the original brand labels and tags and replacing them with the marked-down price. We felt this was a great opportunity to align our charity fundraising goals with the goals of our employee volunteering scheme!

So, early in December, our Charity Committee hosted its first onsite volunteering day and pop-up shop at our head office in Solihull. It was a hugely successful day, with 39 members of staff “de-labelling” around 48 trays of clothes and other items, which equates to roughly £1,400 in labour  saved for Newlife. A pop-up shop was then held to allow people to purchase the items, and this raised an incredible £1,924!

As well as this, our employees got involved with a number of seasonal fundraising activities in the run up to Christmas, including a company-wide Santa Dash which raised almost £3,000, a festive dinner and games night that contributed over £1,000 and several bake sales, tombolas and raffles.

With plans in place for further fundraisers throughout the year ahead, including more pop-up shops, samosa sales, quiz nights and treasure hunts, we’re aiming to keep the momentum going to meet our fundraising target of £35,000. Since partnering with Newlife in October, we’ve already raised over £16,000!

There are real environmental benefits for shopping at Newlife. And with all proceeds going to the charity, every purchase not only breathes new life into an item of clothing, but it also helps to change the lives of disabled and terminally ill children across the UK.

To find out more about the amazing work they do, or how you can get involved in fundraising, visit www.newlifecharity.co.uk.