A MASSIVE £17,000 has been raised at this year’s Lily Mae Foundation Golf Day & Evening Dinner Dance.
The event – now in its seventh year and held at The Belfry – is a calendar highlight for the charity set up by Ryan and Amy Jackson following the tragedy of their daughter Lily Mae who was ‘born sleeping’ in 2010.
Since then, Charity Founders, Ryan and Amy Jackson have campaigned furiously and with passion to honour the memory of Lily Mae and all other babies born too poorly, too soon or sleeping.
Their annual fundraising event has grown in size and popularity since its inception.
Each year teams of golfers gather together to raise money for the charity and are joined by evening guests for a three-course dinner and dance, with a special tribute to ‘those Angel Babies gone too soon from our lives’.
A huge £17,000 was raised at the event, which was supported by Guy Salmon Land Rover Coventry and compered by Tim Stimpson, former England and British Lions Rugby Union International.
The evening featured musical entertainment from Britain’s Got Talent 2015 Finalists ‘The Neales’.
Sponsors who supported the event included Joseph Ash Galvanizing, Priority Freight, Birmingham City FC, Maintel, The Orange Tree, Vorwerk, Guy Salmon Land Rover Coventry, The Aspiration Group, Complete Cricket, Taylormade, Titleist, PicFish and Aluminum Bending Specialists.
The Golf Day featured 34 teams of golfers with 136 players battling to win the prestigious competition, held on The Brabazon course for the first time.
The team competition was won by a team from Joseph Ash Galvanizing. The winning Individual Golfer was Trevor McCormack from the team Ireland Calls.
Charity founders Ryan and Amy said: “On behalf of the Trustees of the Foundation we would like to thank all our sponsors, those businesses and organisations who provided our raffle and auction prizes, our restaurant vouchers and our golf prizes.
“A huge thank you to our raffle ticket sellers, to all those who brought raffle tickets, to all of our golfers and evening dinner guests and to The Belfry staff for their professional organisation and service during the Golf and the Dinner.
“The feedback from the event indicates that this was the ‘best yet’ and certainly the amount raised would support this feeling. “We are tremendously grateful to be able to bring Stillbirth and Neonatal Death out of the shadows and to provide parents, families and friends the opportunity to remember their babies and we look forward to a bigger and even better event next year. “Thank you all so much for your incredible and continued support for The Foundation and our work. We really appreciate your kindness and generosity”
The Lily Mae Foundation gained charitable status in 2012, and has gone from strength to strength.
Its main focus is to provide Memory Boxes to eight local hospitals to help parents create precious memories of their babies. Without these boxes, such memories would be hard to capture.
The Foundation also supports bereaved parents and families through face to face meetings, counselling days, informal support group meetings and baby remembrance services.
The Foundation provides funding support for research into Stillbirth and Neonatal Death to try and reduce the incidence of such tragedies.
Even today in the UK, there are still 16 families affected daily by Stillbirth.
For more information or support visit: www.lilymaefoundation.org.
