A mum from Harrogate is the winner of the Making a difference award from Bliss, the national special care baby charity.
Alex Vere was presented with her award at Bliss’ Thank You event in London’s City Hall on 29 May 2015. She was chosen by the public to receive the award following her Bond for Bliss fundraising evening, which raised £27,000 for the charity.
Alex said:
My husband, Hugo, and I have had 3 beautiful daughters and prematurity has been a major issue whilst bringing each one of our girls into the world.
If we had only known about Bliss back then, how different our lives could have been through that time.
Fundraising for Bliss, making a permanent mark in the world for our beloved middle daughter Matilda who died in 2011, has changed the shape of our grief.
We are now in good shape knowing that in her name we have helped Bliss make a difference to the lives of tiny babies and their families.
Alex’s fundraising evening was held in October at the Crown Hotel, Harrogate and saw over 350 guests enjoy the company of a Daniel Craig lookalike and pose with an Aston Martin DB5. Alex raised £50,000 in total, and the money donated to Bliss was put straight to good use supporting the ground-breaking SCAMP study – a research project whose findings suggest improving early nutrition for extremely premature babies helps improve brain growth and prevent learning difficulties.
A further £13,000 was donated to Harrogate District Hospital to buy a brand new ventilator, which is now in use on the special care baby unit, and £10,000 went to various children’s charities across the UK.
Caroline Davey, Chief Executive of Bliss, said:
We’d like to say a huge thank you to Alex for raising an incredible £27,000 for Bliss.
The money she raised has helped fund research which could make a huge difference to premature babies’ development.
Alex is a truly deserving winner of this award after dedicating a huge amount of time and energy to organising a fantastic event, and I’m delighted we’ll be able to recognise her contribution to Bliss’ work in this way.
The Bliss Thank You event is being held at London’s City Hall on Friday 29 May and hundreds of the charity’s various supporters, fundraisers and campaigners are invited to attend. There will be a ceremony with seven awards handed out to Bliss’ biggest supporters in 2014.
