At the start of 2016, employees at the Durham-headquartered firm chose The Tiny Lives Trust as their charity of the year, and have since carried out a range of fundraising events on its behalf across its offices and operational sites, including a comedy hypnosis night at which £1,464 was raised alone.
Valentines and Easter raffles, a Euro 2016 goal predictor competition and sweepstake, regular dress down Fridays, cake bakes, coffee mornings and tuck shop sales have also been held in the first half of the year.
And further fundraising events are now on the horizon, with 16 members of the Banks team now having signed up to tackle the Tough Mudder Yorkshire event at Broughton Hall in Skipton in August, which involves tackling 14 obstacles along a ten kilometre course made up of challenging hills, dark woodlands, deep bogs and thick mud.
Founded in 1983, Tiny Lives helps to care for premature and sick newborn babies, their mothers and families in the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) of the Newcastle Neonatal Service, which is based in Ward 35 of the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle.
The SCBU looks after over 700 babies and their families from across the North East and Cumbria every year, with babies often being transferred to the RVI from other hospitals in the Northern Neonatal Network, which stretches from the borders of Cumbria and Northumberland down into North Yorkshire.
The Tiny Lives Trust aims to provide the highest quality of care on an ongoing basis and needs to raise at least £250,000 every year to support a range of facilities, staff, and equipment.
These range from developmental care aids, research grants and a family room and accommodation to enable families to stay close to their baby through to a neonatal physiotherapist and a dedicated social worker who provides social, emotional, and practical support for parents.
Tiny Lives was originally nominated by Nicky Marshall, who works at Banks’ Shotton surface mine near Cramlington, due to the care it provided when his daughter Lola was born prematurely.
Catherine Fabi, who is a member of the Banks Group’s charity fundraising committee, says: “The Tiny Lives Trust does amazing work for hundreds of babies and their families, and the unconditional support it provides at what must be difficult times imaginable is absolutely invaluable.
“We always have a very enthusiastic response from across our businesses to the challenge of raising money for the charities we adopt, and we’re really pleased to have raised so much at the halfway point of the year.”
For more information on The Tiny Lives Trust, please visit www.tinylives.org.uk or follow @TinyLivesTrust on Twitter.