It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas….

Hi Sunshine News readers, it’s Lauren here this week, in the last week of October! Where did that go? I hope you’re all enjoying half term whether that means spending time with the kids or not battling through traffic if you’re at work!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas this week as I’ve been working on our Christmas Appeal and we’ve got some very exciting things set to launch to give us all something to look forward to. We launched our annual Christmas Jumper Day last week which will be taking place on Friday 11th December. If you’re at work, school or even at home, you can join in and simply text to donate £2 to wear your festive jumpers, PJs, socks or hats – let’s face it, we’ll probably all be at home anyways so anything goes!

I’ve also been preparing for a very busy week next week as we have some time with 8K studios to film our Christmas videos with our Stagecoach Santa Jon. Whilst Jon is busy growing his beard for the big day, I’ve been filling in on the Santa duties and have been in contact with some Sunshine Families so that we can create some extra special Christmas magic this year, albeit virtually! We can’t wait to share it with you.

Of course before we can truly get excited for the big man himself, we need to get through Halloween! We’ve loved seeing some of our Sunshine Children getting dressed up in previous years and tagging us on Social Media so I do hope fancy dress at home is just as appealing as trick or treating. One good thing to come out of it all I suppose is that we get to eat everything we’ve already bought for the kids, right?

We had some lovely news this week that a family we supported finally got their equipment recently and they shared some lovely pictures with us. 5 Year old Nicole has Battens Disease, a life-limiting condition that affects her mobility and flexibly, often leaving her muscles and joints in pain. We were thrilled to be able to provide Nicole and her family with a hot tub for use at home so that Nicole can feel weightless, easing her pain whilst making precious memories.

Nicole's Mum Gail wanted to tell us what it has meant to their family.

“We feel incredibly fortunate to have this wonderful piece of equipment in our garden because it has given us access to an amazing form of therapy for Nicole from the comfort of our home. As Nicole’s mobility and flexibility are affected by Batten Disease, the lovely warm water and hydro jets allow Nicole to get a full body relaxing experience, she can enjoy the feeling of being weightless which it soothes her muscles and joints.” We love receiving updates from our family and love being able to share them with readers too.

That’s all for this week, next week our Family Coordinator Rachel will be taking over the column!