News

Donation to Demelza – £70,000 – at our 2018 Golf Day

December 12, 2018By

We presented our donation to Demelza  – a cheque for £70,000 – at the second Alan Curbishley Celebrity Golf Day in May 2018.

John Hayes, Axis Europe’s CEO, presented the cheque to our charity partner saying: “Demelza has remained dear to the hearts of all Axis people for a long time and we shall continue to support this incredible charity in their work ‘adding life to days when days cannot be added to life.’ I know that I speak for everyone at Axis when I say how profoundly moved and delighted we are to have a charity partner which has such an impact on those lives it touches.

“I am delighted to present this donation to Demelza: a cheque for £70,000 from all of us at Axis, knowing that this donation will make a real difference in Demelza’s hands.”

Ryan Campbell CBE, Demelza Chief Executive,  said: “Axis Europe and the Axis Foundation have been fantastic to us with unwavering, constant support for the last 14 years, raising over £540,000. We are so proud to be one of Axis’s chosen charities.
We are overwhelmed every year by their kindness and generosity to the extremely ill children we support. We really couldn’t continue to provide our tailored, expert care to so many families without them.
“On behalf of these babies, children and teenagers and their families; our staff and our volunteers, thank you so so much for this Donation to Demelza 2018.”

Thanks to our generous guests and supporters, our second celebrity golf day raised £26,000 which will support Demelza and many small local and impactful causes via the Axis Foundation.

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Demelza Award for Arctic Challenge Extreme fundraising trekDemelza

Prize for Chilly Challengers!

November 23, 2018By

The Axis Arctic Challenge team wins coveted Demelza Business Prize for their extreme fundraising adventure on behalf of our charity partner

The Axis Arctic Challengers raised funds for Demelza Children’s Hospice by braving the cold, heat and dangers of the Arctic. They conquered Mount Kebna – dizzy heights indeed!

The challengers are Christopher Houlihan, Gary Perfect, Philip Twin John Bull and Daniel Blake. Through the hardships of snow, heat, dizzy fits, thirst and hunger, they said that what kept them going was remembering the children for whom Demelza cares.

This was reward in itself for the challengers. But they were delighted to learn that their supreme efforts scooped them Demelza’s Bespoke Fundraising Event of the Year Award – We were also nominated for the Silver Outstanding Corporate Supporter Award!

The judges said

Announcing our win, the judges said that our team “took on a tremendous challenge… They hit extreme and unexpected weather, even causing them hallucinations! But they battled through and completed their trek. Very worthy award winners.”

We said

Our Arctic Five said: “We are so pleased that Demelza gave us this award. We pushed ourselves to a place we did not know existed. We kept thinking about the kids at Demelza. We had a hard few days. Their entire life is hard. We got a real sense of achievement.”

Our Community Investment Coordinator Kellie Durey said: “We cannot thank Demelza enough for our nominations and the big win: it is lovely to see that our support is both appreciated and recognised.”

Congratulations to the Axis Arctic Challengers for their extreme fundraising efforts!

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Five Men on summit of Arctic Mountain for Demelza Arctic Challenge FundraiserDemelza

Axis Arctic Challenge

August 17, 2018By

Chilly Challengers Fly the Flag for Demelza on Arctic Fundraiser

Well done to the Axis Arctic Challengers who went all the way to the top of Mount Kebna in the Arctic Circle – raising funds for our Axis Foundation charity partner Demelza

The Chilly Challenge

Axis people Christopher Houlihan, Gary Perfect, Philip Twin John Bull and Daniel Blake decided they would take on the chilly challenges of the Arctic Circle to raise money for Demelza Children’s Hospice, the charity partner of both Axis and the Axis Foundation  supporting children with life-limiting illnesses.

The Adventure Begins!

On the first leg of their Arctic Challenge fundraiser, the team arrived at base camp on the first night – in great spirits if a little burnt and tired! The following day they went from 25 degrees C to minus 10; sweltering heat to hail and glaciers; hot rocky terrain to waist-high snow drifts; suffering cramp, dizziness painful injuries and bearing heavy kit: our Arctic Challengers certainly had to dig deep to reach the heights.

Would they do it again?

In total the Arctic Challenge fundraiser provided £10,000 for Demelza. They said:

“Yes, without a doubt we would do it again. We got a real sense of achievement. We pushed ourselves to a place we did not know existed. Throughout the Arctic Challenge fundraiser, we kept thinking about the kids at Demelza. We had a hard few days. Their entire life is hard. The money we raised will make a difference.”

An exclusive extract from the diary of the Arctic Challenge Team

“No sooner had we left the first valley did our fears become reality, a storm, fearsome freezing winds, hail & snow coming straight at us and whilst we needed to descend quickly our only route back was up into another valley totally exposed and heading into the storm. There was no safe opportunity for photos here. We stuck to what rockery we could but then found open snow to cross, increasing in distance as visibility was so poor and with the weather worsening all the time – thunder and lighting now!

“No option but to continue we pushed and pushed, falling down in snow or twisting ankles on rocks, with one of us even becoming stuck and needing to be dug out! The valley seemed endless and the weather relentless, progress was perilously slow. We were wet, cold through and totally exposed and our gear barely sufficient for such conditions!

“Eventually we began to descend and with it the hail and snow became rain and the wind lessened to allow us look up, what we saw was a long valley and 6 wet cold hikers! Kebna had broken us but not beaten us!”

Axis would like to thank the following for their support, sponsorship and pledges:
Advanced Drains, Camview Security, Clearline, D&D Plumbing & Electrical, Danacom Ltd, Hallowell Electrical, Hydrotech, Leander Services, M&R Ltd, Paul Grindley, Pump Practitioners, PV Electrical, Raysaleccy, Rob Mellish, Roofmaster, SH Plumbing, Synergy and W&K Interiors.

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Two ladies at Omega life care laughing together.Care

Omega

February 4, 2018By

Support for End-of-Life Charity

Omega, the National Association for End of Life Care, is a multi-award winning charity which helps families and clients who are to coming to terms with terminal illness. Their motto is: “Caring is everyone’s business.”

In 2018, the Axis Foundation donated £2,000 to Omega’s peer support groups including Chatterbox Befrienders.

“The clients we help are often socially isolated and benefit enormously from peer support. Omega groups are a gateway to other sources of help and information offered by Omega and our delivery partners,” explains Tom Memery, Development Director.

Chatterbox Update

In FY 2021/22, the Chatterbox programme worked with over 369 clients and helped and signposted an additional 71 potential clients to other services and specialist agencies.

Thanking the Foundation Tom said: “With your valuable support we have been able to raise the profile of the Chatterbox programme and target clients who need us most. We have further developed relationships with a growing number of referrers. We now work with over 180 individual referrers and referring agencies (40% from within NHS primary care).”

New Award 2022

In 2022, The Axis Foundation made a second award to Omega, this time to support their army of vital volunteers – over 335 of them!

Omega delivers inductions and monthly support groups to their volunteers via video link. The grant of £5,000 will upgrade their IT and help Omega support their volunteers – and recruit and retain more.

They will also use the grant to make some minor changes to install additional electrical sockets and a upgrade the lighting as well as buy more office furniture.

‘We value the relationship we have with The Axis Foundation. We have found Axis to be a discerning and very supportive grant making trust who take a particular interest in the good causes that they support. With their help, we can now upgrade our ageing ICT equipment and buy much-needed office furniture. This will help us support our volunteers and the vulnerable clients we serve,’ said Tom.

More About Omega, the National Association for End of Life Care, here 

 

 

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Disabled adults and children enjoy festival experience with help from Festival SpiritDisability

Festival Spirit

September 1, 2017By

Festival experience for life-limited and disabled people

Festival Spirit is passionate about providing magical festival experiences for life-limited and disabled people. The charity ensures that their guests can attend such festivals and have the time of their lives whilst there. The Axis Foundation donated £5,100 to help the charity continue in their mission.

“The money donated has enabled us to purchase vital equipment to ensure we are able to provide the very best facilities and support to our guests. In particular, we have bought two high-quality hoists for bed/chair transfers and changing and a range of kitchen equipment. Our festival brunches are becoming famous!

“It makes a huge difference to our guests knowing that they can be confident they will have access to all the equipment they need through a festival weekend. We couldn’t achieve such success without the support we get from organisations like the Axis Foundation.

“We were delighted to be able to make three festivals accessible in 2017. The donation we received from you was really important to us and the equipment we purchased was greatly appreciated by the attendees” – Steve Clarke, Trustee

More about Festival Spirit

Many music festivals simply cannot offer the full festival experience for life-limited and disabled people as they cannot accommodate the special requirements.
Festival Spirit lays on a specially-adapted marquee (with hard flooring, heating and electricity) which are close to disabled facilities such as showers and toilets, as well as full electric hospital beds, shower chairs/commodes and a curtained-off private sleeping area. There are camp beds for carers too, and ‘buddies’ who assist the guests and their carers travelling around the site.

“For four days, I was Lucy. I was a young adult. I was a festival-goer. I was part of a group. I was doing something many people do. I was myself. I was not a ‘disabled’ young adult, or a ‘disabled’ festival-goer, or a ‘disabled’ group member, I was simply me” – Lucy, attending WOMAD with Festival Spirit

 

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Momentum Children's Charity hospital room decorated with wildlife theme.Care

Momentum Children’s Charity

August 2, 2017By

Transforming hospital experience for children with cancer and life-limiting illnesses

The Axis Foundation donated £3,500 to help Momentum Children’s Charity‘s transformation of the Frog Isolation Room on the Rupert Bear Paediatric Ward in Croydon University Hospital.

Momentum supports families of children with cancer and life-limiting illnesses living in South West London and Surrey. Children who have cancer and life-limiting illnesses often spend a huge amount of their time in hospital, from their diagnosis and throughout their treatment. Isolation rooms ensure they do not catch any further infections and some children can be in these rooms for up to 10 days at a time.

Bearing this in mind, the new decor at Croydon University Hospital features Momentum’s mascot Mo the Owl and other wildlife including frogs, ladybirds and butterflies and plants. This redecoration project has created a bright and happy space providing the young patients with positive distractions and enriching toys to make their time in hospital a little bit easier.

“We wanted to make a difference for the children and to make their memories of staying in hospital positive. Something as simple as improving the environment can make a huge difference. The Axis Foundation and our other supporters have allowed us to make a massive difference in the hospital and for the children” – Tara MacDowel, Head of Fundraising and Communications

“Enhancing the healing environment in hospitals is a large part of Momentum’s work. Studies have shown that a good hospital environment can greatly improve a child’s recovery time and of course the staff also benefit from a brighter, more welcoming place in which to work. So we are grateful to all of you at the Axis Foundation. With your donation we have been able to transform the Isolation Room at Croydon University Hospital into a wonderful welcoming space for our young cancer patients. … thank you again for your support” – Bianca Effemey, Co-Founder

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Man holding baby at Sparks Medical Research CharityCare

Sparks

July 26, 2017By

Pioneering children’s medical research

The Axis Foundation donated a total of £75,000 to Sparks over two years to help them continue their pioneering children’s medical research. Our donations were raised at the Axis Foundation Christmas Charity Ball, our Celebrity Golf Days and by assorted fundraising initiatives undertaken by Axis people.

“It’s fantastic to have the ongoing support of the extremely generous Axis Foundation. This will make a big difference to the number of projects we’re able to fund, and really help with our aim to give every child the best possible start in life” – Rob Booker, CEO

“Now more than ever there is real hope for children with complex and rare conditions and with your help we can fun even more pioneering child health research. On behalf of Sparks and everyone at GOSH Charity, thank you so much for your tremendous support” – Elvira Morrison, Head of Sparks

Why we chose Sparks

John Hayes, Trustee of the Axis Foundation, recognised the importance of Sparks’ contributions to children’s medical research. So he adopted Sparks as one of the Axis Foundation’s charity partners alongside Demelza Hospice Care for Children in 2015.

Axis Foundation Trustees giving a cheque to Sparks Medical Research Charity
Here we are presenting a cheque for £52,751 to Sparks at our Alan Curbishley Classic Charity Golf Day attended by famous faces such as Roy Hodgson and Sir Trevor Brooking (2017).

More about Sparks

Sparks was established in 1991 and has funded over 290 pioneering children’s medical research projects in universities, hospitals and research institutions across both the UK and overseas including in these fields:

  • The 4,000 rare childhood diseases that are yet to have a cure
  • The 50,000 premature births that take place in England and Wales each year, currently the leading cause of the death of children under the age of five
  • 1 in 30 children born in the UK every day which has a condition that will affect them for life

Sparks is now part of the Great Ormond Street Hospital charity family and supports clinicians and scientists conducting research into treatments and cures of medical conditions affecting children’s health.

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Child cared for at Demelza sat with parents.News

Inaugural Golf Day – £54,000 to Demelza

May 13, 2017By

We donate £54,000 – the equivalent of 2,680 hours of nursing care – to Demelza – at our inaugural celebrity charity golf day

At the first Axis Foundation Celebrity Charity Golf Day in June 2017, the Axis Foundation presented a cheque for £54,000 to Demelza’s Adopt a Nurse scheme. The sum is the equivalent of 2,680 hours of nursing care.

Receiving the cheque, Demelza CEO Ryan Campbell said: “Everyone who works for or with Axis has gone above and beyond to support our families, raising vital funds so that we can continue to help those families when they need us the most. You have showed unbelievable spirit and determination, completing incredibly difficult challenges and raising a truly outstanding amount of money for Demelza’s Adopt a Nurse programme.”

Demelza Parent Mette explained: “As well as memory-making and emotional support Demelza also gave practical help – from the community nursing team making phone calls and liaising with various agencies to staff at the hospice tackling paperwork. We didn’t need to worry about the cooking, cleaning, washing – we could just focus on Thomas.”

Alan Curbishley, Foundation patron and tv sports pundit, has kindly lent his name to the golf day: the Alan Curbishley Classic. Our first golf day was so popular it is scheduled to become an annual favourite in everyone’s sporting calendar! And thanks to our generous guests and supporters, on the day, we raised £18,000 to help Demelza and other small, local and impactful causes via the Axis Foundation.

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Patient and carer at Greenwich Bexley Community HospiceCare

Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice

April 12, 2017By

Two donations fund specialist medical equipment and increase comfort for patients

The Axis Foundation has been delighted to make two donations to help Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice, an important community resource providing end-of-life care with compassion.

2017: Pressure Care Mattresses

In 2017, Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice sought funding to buy pressure care mattresses for their 17-bed in-patient unit. The unit cares for around 400 patients per year. We donated £4,000 which enabled the hospice to purchase two specialist mattresses. These dramatically improved the comfort of those experiencing pain and discomfort due to their illness.

“The mattresses really help those in our wards to be comfortable in their beds, with a special system allowing the patient to make the mattress as hard or soft as they want. When we get donations specifically for specialist medical equipment it means that we can improve the comfort and experience for patients. It gives the staff peace of mind because they know that they have the best equipment to help the people that they care for.

“I’d like to say thank you for what you’ve done to support us. The charitable donations that we receive are really important for us as they help us continue to deliver our care” – Kate Heaps, Chief Executive

“We are so fortunate to be gifted pressure relieving mattresses for our ward. The patients say that they really help to ease their discomfort.”” – Anne, Hospice Healthcare Assistant 

2013: Syringe Drivers

In 2013, the Foundation donated £6,000 to purchase six Syringe Drivers, specialist medical equipment administering medicine. These are essential for pain management and symptom control.  A Syringe Driver is a small battery-powered pump carried by the patient. It releases medicine slowly, safely and effectively under the skin. It can be used, for example, when a patient is unable to take tablets.

More About Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice

Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice provides compassionate end-of-life care for around 2,500 people (per annum). The patients have illnesses such as cancer, heart failure, respiratory disease and neurological conditions. They live mainly in the London Boroughs of Greenwich and Bexley.

The Hospice is vital community resource – a lifeline for so many people and their families in truly difficult times. Their 24-hour care programme offers pain and symptom management as well as psychological care, respite, rehabilitation and end-of-life care.

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Demelza

Top DJ Dave Berry accepts second cheque for Demelza 2016

July 7, 2016By

Capital Radio DJ Dave Berry accepted a cheque for £75,000 from Peter Varney, Chairman of the Axis Foundation, on behalf of Demelza Children’s Hospice at the hospices premises in January 2016.

Demelza is Axis’ charity partner; both the parent company Axis, and the Axis Foundation are long-term and loyal supporters of the hospice.

Peter Varney thanked the Capital DJ saying: “It is always a very moving experience to visit the Demelza Children’s Hospice and you cannot fail to be humbled by the fantastic and caring work they do. Axis people have played a huge role in organising fundraising activities to support Demelza and deserve enormous credit for this achievement.”

This is the second time Dave Berry, Demelza’s patron has accepted a Foundation cheque from us. We are delighted to have such capital support!

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