Candlelighters

October 2018 –

Candlelighters is a children’s charity dedicated to combating cancer, leukaemia and serious blood disorders by supporting children and their families from across Yorkshire. They offer practical and emotional support as well as therapy and wellbeing at their family support centre, The Square. They heavily invest in staff and equipment funding at Leeds Children’s Hospital, funding 665hrs of staff roles every week.

At the beginning of 2017 Candlelighters purchased a cottage just a short walk from the hospital. Once renovated this cottage would provide free accommodation for families facing childhood cancer, enabling them to be closer together and reduce the financial burden of travel costs.

The cottage itself was uninhabitable at the time and needed completely stripping back.

Amongst other things, the property needed a new roof, re-wiring of electrics, a new plumbing and heating system, damp proofing course, full re-plastering and insulating to name but a few.

An extension was to be built in order to expand the communal areas for families, as well as four bedrooms that needed their own ensuite, toilet and wet room shower installed

On top of all this, the entire property would need to be refurnished with everything from beds and chairs through to towels and cutlery.

It was in May 2017 that the Candlelighters Cottage campaign was launched, which raised over £250,000. An amount that the Kentown Wizard Foundation are delighted to have match funded in order for the charity to begin renovations.

After months of incredibly hard work from both the Candlelighters and their supporters the cottage was complete and the grand opening set for September

Margaret Ingram, CEO of the Kentown Wizard Foundation- “We were trilled to attend the Candlelighters Cottage grand opening, it is a fantastic project and the renovations are amazingly impressive! This will be a very comfortable home from home where families can spend precious time together”

The Candlelighters have now officially opened the cottage to the public and most recently released a Candlelighters Cottage storybook to commemorate the project.

The delightful and enchanting book, written in rhyming couplets, tells the story of how the Candlelighters Cottage magically comes to life with the help of some feathered friends.

Written by local author Donna lliffe-Pollard and illustrated by Christina Little, all proceeds from the book are being donated to Candlelighters.

“A brick is just a building block, it’s nothing on its own

But when it’s joined by thousands more, it turns into a home”

Charity Registration Number: 1045077