The Foundation is in its seventh month, and has, with your generous support, achieved so much in such a short time.
Thanks to the fund raising activity of so many of you, the Foundation has raised £106k, to help fund the training and development of paediatric medical professionals.
We are also delighted to announce that we have two new Trustees, Helen Paxton, lifelong friend who adds huge value with her organisational abilities and Caroline Ridgwell, Howard’s Sister and Evie’s Aunty – who is both hugely experienced and very well connected in the healthcare industry through her role of CEO at NHS Elect. Caroline will help lead the search and selection of viable applicants for the Foundation.
On that note, it is with great pleasure that we announce our first 3 successful applicants!
Cuba Parris, studying his Medical Doctorate in Sheffield. Cuba looked after Evie in his role as healthcare assistant at the Royal Marsden and is an amazing, caring and kind human being. As a Doctor he will be able to influence the lives of so many more sick children and their families and we are so delighted to, initially, help fund his first year of study. We talk more about Cuba here in this video, Cuba is the inspiration for the purpose and direction of the Foundation.
Lucy Puttock, is studying to be a Paediatric Advanced Clinical Practitioner (ACP), a role that sits between Nurse and Doctor and that we personally found to be such an important and helpful role while Evie was unwell. The Foundation is delighted to be able to fund Lucy in her final year of study (Lucy has funded herself so far). This final year of study sees Lucy obtain her Masters qualification and join a new team of ACPs at Kings College Hospital, who were so incredible in their care of Evie. We are delighted that Lucy is one of the first successful applicants.
Humphrey Nyambe, is studying a specialist masters degree to help him progress in his role as Physicians Associate at East Kent Hospitals. Humphrey plans to study allergies and apply his learnings to the care of children in the local community. Evie received incredible care from our local East Kent hospital, the QEQM in Margate, and it is fantastic to be able to support a local doctor seeking to develop new services for children in this area.
We are proud to support these amazing clinicians in their work with sick children, ultimately this is the reason the Foundation exists. This is only possible through the support and kind donations of both money and time that each of you has offered to Evie’s Foundation. Thank you.
The Trustees are now opening up the application process across more of the UK, and hope to add many more successful beneficiaries over 2023, which we will keep you regularly updated on.
In other news …
Fantasy Football
The Foundation’s Fantasy Football league is entering game week 35 (out of 38), with more than 140 of you entering teams. There is fierce competition at the top of the table, with 4 more game weeks to the end of the season to see who wins the top prize of £300. There are also prizes for best name, highest scoring week and the winner of Evie Dove Cup which runs to the end of the season with a ‘winner takes all’ prize of £150.
Huge thanks to Tony Wheble and the Feefo team for sponsoring this year’s league. We plan for the 23/24 season league to be bigger and better, more details to follow!
Holiday Extras Quiz night and Bean Ballot
Enormous thanks to the team at Holiday Extras who laid on a Quiz night, pizza wagon, cocktail bar and a “Bean Ballot”, where the whole team voted to pour buckets of cold baked beans on the heads of 5 winning individuals! We are still counting up the proceeds but expect in excess of £6,000 alone from this brilliant evening.
Announcing new fundraising events
2023 sees a number of amazing events already lined up, we hope you can join us on some/all of these!
Afternoon tea
Afternoon tea, cake and raffle in Kingsdown on Sunday 25th June, from midday to 4pm. Please join us for cake and tea by the seaside. Tickets are £10 (children come free) and are available via Enthuse.
Golf Day
Our inaugural Evie Dove Foundation Golf day will be at Chart Hills on 17 September 2023.
This will be a super special day including 20 teams of 4 players battling it out on a fantastic course designed by one of our most famous golfers, Nick Faldo. Please contact Hugo Loudon via email (hugo.loudon@holidayextras.com) if you are interested in taking part.
Walk for Evie
On Saturday 9th September we are holding our first sponsored walk in and around the Hythe / Folkestone area, with a testing 18 miler as the main event and a shorter family friendly walk of 3 miles for the kids or those that wish to take part with slightly less challenge. All participants will be kitted out with Evie Dove Foundation T-Shirts, and we will have a great finishers party at Unit 1.
Save the date, sign up details to follow shortly!
Individual challenges
As usual the Trustees would like to thank all those who have set themselves personal challenges in the name of the Foundation. Previous fundraisers can be seen here, alongside details of how you can set yourself up to take part in a challenge or raise funds for the Foundation. Some have completed challenges since our last update, including;
Henry Bowyer – who is 10 years old and goes to St Faith’s Prep School in Ash, the wonderful school that both Evie and Edward went to. Henry has done both a sponsored silence and book sale and raised an amazing £350 plus gift aid of £87.50. Thank you Henry and huge well done.
Sadie Potterton – another friend of the Foundation who ran the London marathon to raise funds for Evie. She trained through the winter months during some of the coldest wettest periods and completed the epic gruelling 26.2 miles with some pretty impressive war wounds to boot and raised a fantastic £1.8k – massive thanks and well done Sadie.
There are a number of challenges that are still to be completed and fundraising events that you may want to support below:-
Jasper Ryman – a friend of the Foundation, & the web/brand designer of the Foundation website, has created an incredible challenge, taking on the huge feat of mountain biking the entire length of Great Britain from Lands End to John O’Groats.
Jasper’s challenge will cover approximately 1,200 miles, most of which will be off-road, carrying his food, camping and cycling gear with him all the way. Jasper is planning to spend most of his nights sleeping under the stars, but has said that he will squeeze in the odd B&B & YHA in order to get a hot bath. Not only is he doing this for Evie but he is also using his work sabbatical to do it in. Sponsor Jasper.
Lara Santolini who is doing the Manchester half marathon in May and raising funds for the Foundation. Sponsor Lara
Paul Ainsworth – Evie’s music teacher has set himself a challenge of riding 5000km this year, including the London to Brighton Cycle Ride as part of that. Sponsor Paul
Jamie Burrett – Evie’s sport teacher at St Faith’s at Ash primary school has set himself the challenge of cycling from London to Paris over a 3 day period. Sponsor Jamie.
We’d like to wish everyone of these amazing people the very best of luck in their individual challenges and a huge thank you for your support.
The 3 Peaks – The Trustees and close friends are taking on the infamous “3 Peaks challenge” on 4th July (climbing Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon in 24 hours including transfer times between the 3 countries). The Lake District and hiking was a favourite pastime of Evie, with so many precious memories of spending time together as a family, so we felt this was a very fitting event for the Trustees to take on together. Sponsor the Trustees & friends
Last but not least…
Who likes Beyonce?! Well they are the hottest tickets in town and we have 2 top tickets available for Monday 29th May at the amazing London Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, including all of the following:
- Pre show access to a VIP Bar with light bites
- Premium Tickets in West Level 3, with luxury padded seats
- Access to Premium areas and lounges
- Post show party with live band
The tickets have a face value of £700, we will however let them go to the highest bidder – please send your best bid to info@theeviedovefoundation.org, all proceeds will go to the Foundation so please give it your very best shot!!
Well we hope you are finding the updates useful, we are only contacting you as and when we have important news, events and progress to share and felt that most importantly we should celebrate the incredible milestone of awarding funding to our first applicants.
Thank you again for your support, love and kindness.
Team Evie xx