To celebrate 20 years in business, Walton-based greeting card publisher The Original Poster Company is donating £5,000 to each of four charities, although fundraising by the company Chairman’s daughter and her best friend increased the total donated to childrens’ medical charity Sparks to over £11,500.

 

The four charities are children’s charity Sparks, Kings College Hospital Charity, Help for Heroes and CLIC Sargent, the UK’s leading children’s cancer charity. Each one has its own special meaning for the staff of the company.

 

Co-founder and Deputy Chairman of The Original Poster Company David Mills spent 5 years as the Chairman of Sparks whilst a member of the company’s staff was supported by Kings College during his battle with leukaemia. Help for Heroes was the choice of the Original Poster Company’s staff and CLIC Sargent was chosen as one of the four charities for the support it gave to one of The Original Poster Company’s franchise holders named Mike and Fiona Davies, who lost their son to cancer.  

 

In a boost to the company’s donations Emma, daughter of the Original Poster Company’s Chairman Simon Warren-Gash, wanted to help towards OPC’s anniversary charity donations, but as a student was unable to contribute financially. Emma is at Edinburgh University studying Sport and Recreation Management and she agreed to run the London Marathon in April 2011 with her best friend Victoria, a Sport Science student at the University of Gloucestershire, with all proceeds to go to Sparks. Both successfully completed the Marathon. Emma raised £4,550.00 and Victoria Leyshon £1,961.20, meaning that OPC’s £5,000 donation to Sparks was more than doubled to over £11,500.00.

 

John Shanley, Chief Executive of Sparks, says: “A huge thank you to everyone at the Original Poster Company for their support and especially to Emma and Victoria for running the marathon in support of Sparks. Having completed it myself this year I fully appreciate the sacrifices required. This very generous donation will go towards pioneering research enabling medical breakthroughs to assist children.”

 

Sparks is a leading children’s medical research charity which since 1991 has committed over £20 million into pioneering research projects across a wide spectrum of medical conditions including childhood cancers, cerebral palsy, premature birth and spina bifida.

 

For more information about Sparks and how you can help support their work please contact Sean Kelly on 0207 9017750 or email sean@sparks.org.uk.

 

The Department of Haematology at King’s is the largest haematopoietic stem cell transplantation centre in the UK, serving as the South East Regional Referral Centre for a population of approximately 3.6 million. The unit supports patients with all types of haematological cancers such as myeloma, leukaemia and lymphoma and is a recognised Centre of Excellence for the diagnosis and treatment of patients with myelodysplastic syndromes. It has also recently been awarded the status of Research Centre of Excellence by Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research.

 

The charity relies heavily on charitable funding for its research programs, one of which is the leukaemia vaccine trial which can be used to stop the disease returning after chemotherapy or bone marrow transplant.  Eventually it is hoped the drug, which activates the body’s own immune system against the leukaemia, could be used to treat other types of cancers.

 

For more information about The Kings College Hospital Charity and how you can help support their work please contact 020 3299 3456 or email support@givingtokings.org.uk.

 

Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre Headley Court (more commonly known as Headley Court), is an 85-acre United Kingdom Ministry of Defence facility in Headley, near Leatherhead, Surrey. It is used as a rehabilitation centre for injured members of the British Armed Forces and its main objective is to return all those service personnel injured or seriously ill to full fitness.

 

There is a rehabilitation staff of around 200 providing specialist medical officers, nurses, remedial instructors, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, a cognitive therapist, social workers, engineers, and administration support staff. Not only does the centre deal with patients with new physical disabilities, but it also deals with patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

 

Headley Court is still in need of further facilities and the charity Help for Heroes was set up in late 2007, with a first objective of raising money to build these facilities.

 

OPC’s donation of £5,000 will be go towards designing and creating a simple and low maintenance garden of tranquillity for the psychiatric ward which will fit in well with one of the main themes of the treatment programme for patients – learning how to manage stress and trigger relaxation responses as required.

 

For more information about Help for Heroes, Headley Court and how you can help support their work please contact 01725 514 130 or email donations@helpforheroes.org.uk.

 

CLIC Sargent is the UK’s leading cancer charity for children and young people. It provides clinical, practical and emotional support for young cancer patients and their families, from diagnosis onwards.

 

Dan Powell, Area Fundraising Manager at CLIC Sargent, says: “a huge thank you to everyone at the Original Poster Company for their support and especially to Mike and Fiona for nominating CLIC Sargent. This very generous donation will go towards our vital work supporting families such as the Davies at this most difficult of times.”

 

For more information about CLIC Sargent and how you can help support our work please contact Dan Powell on 01273 232397 or email dan.powell@clicsargent.org.uk.

 

Simon Warren-Gash from the Original Poster Company commented “We are delighted to be able to support these four worthwhile charities. Each one is close to the hearts of our staff and the Original Poster Company is very pleased to be able to give something back to the communities we work in.”