Bath for Kessie Campaign Half Way There – But Needs More Help

Published on: 20 Sep, 2018
Updated on: 22 Sep, 2018

Kessie and Iris. You can donate towards a special bath for her now!

The appeal launched in The Guildford Dragon by Su Johnston following a comment on a story by Dragon reader Adam Aaronson has raised 50% of the £5,000 target in 12 days.

The objective of the appeal is to provide a bath for Kessie who suffers from Retts syndrome. She hates showers but that is all her family has, at the moment.

Su Johnston says: “It has been really encouraging to see such a mix of people pledging and helping by spreading the word. Even the Bishop of Guildford helped by retweeting (thanks Bishop Andrew). There have been one or two very large pledges and lots of smaller ones, and loads of really lovely messages of support.

“Every pledge helps and quite apart from the money, it’s such a clear signal to Kessie’s mum Iris that people care about her and her family. As she said to Trisha, her Guildford Action support worker, she simply cannot believe, that people she has never met, care this much about her children.”

“But we’re not out of the woods yet though – we won’t get a single penny of the pledges unless we hit the £5k target, and today (September 19) we sold out of the rewards.

“Lots of people are happy to donate but we know that the rewards help us to bring in some of the larger pledges which in turn makes it more likely that we will raise all the money we need in time (the deadline is October 5).”

The appeal now needs local businesses to offer products or services, free of charge, which we can then be offered in exchange for a pledge.

The Surrey Bike Project – a charity in its own right – has just given a second full bike service (valued at £70), but the appeal needs as many Guildford businesses as possible to step up and support.

Su adds: “It’s a great way to get some lovely local PR and maybe even connect with some new local customers.”

If anyone wants to find out more, or is happy to donate a reward, they can email Su at bathforkessie@gmail.com. Please do help.