Eight volunteers from our Guildford office swapped their laptops for garden tools and paint brushes as they volunteered to support the team at Christopher’s, a purpose-built children’s hospice in the town.
Christopher’s, which supports babies, children and young people with life-limiting conditions and their families – as well as offering end-of-life care – is operated by Shooting Star Children’s Hospices, the nominated charity for the Guildford office this year.
As well as fundraising throughout the year, our team will also use their paid volunteering leave to support the charity. Every employee has the opportunity to take two days’ worth of leave each year to support good causes.
The octet – Kate Whitty, Laura Lyon, Emma Butler, Paula Areosa, Mia Swindells, Emily Masterson, Ella Cockerill and Janhvi Fauzdar – split up to tackle various maintenance tasks including painting garden furniture and a play castle for the children, whilst others weeded around the paths and the entrance to the facility to give it a more welcoming first impression for patients and visitors.
Once completed, the team were then given a tour of the facility and shown the different rooms and specialist spaces that Christopher’s has to offer to children and their families, including a soft play area, sensory room, hydrotherapy pool and the large garden they had spent the day sprucing up.
The facility also offers nine children’s bedrooms and five family flats and was officially opened in 2002 by The Duchess of Edinburgh.
Kate Whitty, plot conveyancer and member of the Guildford office’s charity committee, said: “As an office, we are extremely proud to be supporting Shooting Star this year. To see the incredible work they do at Christopher’s to support children with life-limiting conditions was humbling and reinforced why it is such a crucial cause. It is a brilliant facility and we are honoured to have played a small part in making it as welcoming as possible for children and their families.”
