Two of our generous patrons, Alisdair Beveridge and Mandale Group, showed incredible Christmas spirit when they heard about a group of particularly underprivileged Teesside children. Read this great festive story here.
Middlesbrough kids Laura*, 10, and her younger brother Nathan*, 7, didn’t get Christmas presents from their parents last year.
Sadly, both dad and mam are drug addicts and struggle to focus on being good parents.
Earlier this year, Laura and Nathan moved out of their home to live permanently with their grandparents, who although they have their own health and financial issues, do all they can to give them a loving home.
Sadly, their financial struggles meant they were unlikely to be able to provide their grandchildren the sort of Christmas most of us take for granted.
Thankfully, a wonderful charity called Grandparents Plus does all it can to help grandparents and family members who take over when parents are unable or unwilling to support their children.
Grandparents Plus help these carers, known as “kinship carers” all they can.
They identified to our Foundation 14 of Teesside’s kinship families with the biggest challenges – and two of our big-hearted patrons stepped forward to help.
Property Group Mandale and their staff plus Mandale’s fellow patron, local businessman Alisdair Beveridge, donated cash to allow us to provide presents for children and hampers for families to ensure Christmas Day puts a smile on their faces.
Mari (centre) of Grandparents Plus is pictured receiving the gifts and hampers from Harriet Spalding of Mandale and Alisdair Beveridge.
Their efforts are typical of the amazing generosity of spirit and power to care that so often goes unreported and unnoticed but very much lives strong within this imperfect but amazing place we call Teesside.
*Names changed to protect their identities.
