2 minute read
SPRUCING UP
BID BUSINESS TREE OF HOPE PUTS DOWN NEW roots
CAMDEN ROAD
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Local children’s charity, Tree of Hope, is branching out with a move to a town centre office, in Camden Road.
“We’re a children’s healthcare charity, helping families fundraise for treatments, therapies and equipment that aren’t available through the NHS. We support families to raise money by setting up campaigns, helping with marketing resources and being that friendly ear on the end of the phone. We work with service providers, suppliers, hospitals such as Great Ormond Street and consultants working with new, innovative treatments and operations, to ensure families are proceeding with safe and authentic options.
We operated from Tonbridge for 5 years, and we’ve been in Camden Road for a couple of months, which is really exciting, although we’ve been based in Tunbridge Wells before, down by the Pantiles. We owned the building, which was a shop and cafe, but when our tenant gave up his lease, we gave up our lease in Tonbridge and came back - we thought why don’t we live in our own building, and here we are!
We recognise a lot of the faces here, it’s nice to be back in a busy area - it feels as though Tunbridge Wells has a bigger community, and wants to work together. Manic Ceramix and Vittle & Swig have been really supportive of us. We’re grateful to Royal Victoria Place shopping centre, for offering us space in their windows and allowing us to put on events there. We held a Christmas fayre in the Pop In Pop Up unit, which is a great free community venue. Everyone seems to want to get things moving again and promote the town centre after a difficult couple of years.
The fact that as a small charity, we’ve survived the pandemic, is miraculous. That time really changed the dynamic of what we do for families - of course a lot of services closed, very suddenly, so families were stuck in a place where they had nobody supporting them. Our enquiries went through the roof - we put equipment into their homes, linked with therapists to deliver services over Zoom, and helped teach parents and guardians to offer treatments to children themselves.
People felt really lost, so it was about just being there. We have hundreds of vulnerable families who have all got children with health conditions, and it was a scary time.
Fundraising was difficult, so this year we’re going ahead with the events that were cancelled in 2020, two years behind but the hope is we will continue to bring in income and involve the community.
We’re always looking for collaborations, and would love to work with local businesses, we want to work in a joined up way and not just take.
As part of our 30th birthday celebration this year, we are hosting lots of fundraising events. Since we are only a small team, we are looking for volunteers to help support us, to make sure our events are fun and a great success. We have events planned for evenings, weekdays or weekends so something to suit everyone.
If you would like to know more, please contact Karen Warner – Karen.Warner@treeofhope.org. uk” ■
www.treeofhope.org.uk
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