Six Welsh charities who provide vital care and support to the community including Cardiff-based Velindre Cancer Centre and homelessness charity Boomerang Cardiff have received donations from Newport-based legal practice Convey Law.
All the charities received £1000 each after they were nominated by staff at Convey, whose clients raised the funds by taking part in the Conveyancing Foundation’s Charity Lotto.
The Foundation’s Charity Lotto has helped legal practices including Convey Law raise thousands of pounds for charity.
Other charities to benefit were Many Tears Animal Rescue, Cancer Research Wales, the Sparkle Appeal and Caerwent Youth Centre.
Boomerang Cardiff works hand in hand with the community to support and prevent homelessness and poverty and help those suffering critical living conditions and social isolation. The charity also assists low-income families and the homeless by providing the equipment they need while being homed or rehomed.
Convey Law Head of Sales Kelly Leworthy, who has been raising funds for Boomerang since it was started and nominated it for a donation, says the organisation plays a crucial role in supporting those in need in and around Cardiff.
She explained:
“I have seen many friends, friends of friends and their families benefit from Boomerang Cardiff which looks after the people of Cardiff and surrounding areas when they need some help or even employment.
“Their motto is: ‘Nobody can help everyone but everyone can help someone’ – which really sums up their fantastic attitude to helping this community and those in need step by step.”
Boomerang Operations Manager Dave Summers said the donation would be invaluable and would enable the charity’s collection service to run for ten weeks.
He explained:
‘We will use the £1,000 donation exclusively for fuel for our collection/delivery van. On average we use around £100 per week, so this donation will last us around 10 weeks which will enable us to carry out, over the course of the 10 weeks, at least 300 collections of furniture and enable us to deliver at least 30 full essential home starter packs for families and individuals who are moving on from a homelessness situation.’’
Convey Law also donated £1000 to the Velindre Cancer Centre in Whitchurch, Cardiff.
The centre was nominated by Chelsea Carey, a Conveyancer at Convey Law whose partner Aaron was treated at the centre for testicular cancer.
Chelsea says the centre “saved Aaron’s life” after he was diagnosed with testicular cancer at the age of just 26 and needed months of intensive chemotherapy and eventually a major operation when the cancer spread to his back.
She explained:
“Thankfully, he is now in remission but still getting regular check-ups and tests. All of this care was undertaken by Velindre Cancer Centre, and they were simply amazing.
“The nurses and doctors there go absolutely above and beyond in treating their patients and nothing is ever too much for them. Although they are part of the NHS, they need regular donations to enable them to look into new treatments and provide the highest quality of care for all cancer patients.”
Caerwent Youth Centre in Monmouthshire also received a donation of £1000 after being nominated by Conveyancing Supervisor Alex Harris, who combines a busy job running a conveyancing team at Convey Law with working as a youth and community support worker.
Alex, 30, has been running a weekly session at the Caerwent Youth Centre since he was 16 and has provided valuable sports and play facilities for hundreds of young people in Monmouthshire.
He said:
“We cater for young people between 11 and 17 and run various activities including lots of different sports and arts and crafts, pool and ping pong tournaments, cooking and life skills.
“They pay £1 to come to the 2.5 hour session but, as we are entirely self-funded, we don’t make any profit and all funds go back into the club so we are always looking for additional donations which mean we can choose activities from the wish list the young people have put together.
“The club is about to re-open after COVID forced us to close last April so the young people will be really excited to be back together after so long and to choose something to spend the donation from Convey Law on. It will make a massive difference to what we can provide for them so we are incredibly grateful.”
A further £1000 was donated to the Sparkle Appeal, which supports children, young people and their families with disabilities and/or developmental difficulties.
It provides support and leisure activities throughout South Wales through its Serennu Children's Centre in Newport, Nevill Hall Children's Centre in Abergavenny and Caerphilly Children's Centre
Sparkle was nominated by Convey Law MD Lloyd Davies after he was approached by the charity who were desperately short of funding because of the COVID pandemic.
He said:
“Their services are more in need than ever across Wales but COVID has drastically affected their fundraising.”
Natalie Brown from Sparkle said the charity supported over 300 families a week by delivering activities and clubs such as independent living skills, youth clubs, play clubs, swimming sessions, and cooking, whilst also supporting families through specialist counselling, workshops, and information and advice services.
She said
“Our guiding principle is to ensure that every child is fully supported to participate in valued childhood experiences and has access to the same range of opportunities, life experiences, activities and services, as any other child.
“We are working hard to support our families at such a tough time but our work is not possible without the help and support of our communities to raise the funds we need to keep our services running. But as you can imagine COVID drastically changed the way we are fundraising.”
Convey Law also donated £1000 to Many Tears Animal Rescue in Carmarthenshire which primarily takes in ex-breeding dogs who are no longer required as well as dogs on ‘death row’ in pounds and those whose owners can no longer look after them.
The centre, which rehomes an estimated 3000 plus dogs a year, was nominated by Rebecca Johnson, who works as a Conveyancer at Convey Law.
Animal lover Rebecca said she has admired the centre for some years since she started visiting it and following them on Facebook.
She said:
“Their facilities are incredible and always clean and the dogs are happy and healthy. I would rescue them all if I could!
“When I got the chance to nominate a charity for a donation, I thought of them straight away because they are a relatively small charity and they need every penny they can get so they can carry on saving dogs and finding them homes.
“They are amazing and work so hard to find foster homes and permanent homes for dogs all over the UK.”
The charity urgently needs funding for veterinary and rehoming costs as it has grown rapidly since its foundation in 2004.
MTAR spokesman Jenna Chung said:
“With the help of our staff, fosterers and other volunteers we provide a special and loving environment to help all our dogs adapt and find permanent, loving new homes. All potential adopters are interviewed and homes vetted and we do our utmost best to find the right home for each dog.
“Any veterinary treatment required is financed by donations to the rescue which enable us to ensure each dog receives the specialist care it needs. The rescue has grown considerably since it first opened and it has been so difficult to keep going during the pandemic with all our planned fundraisers having to be cancelled so donations such as this are vital for us to continue and we are so grateful.”
Cancer Research Wales was nominated in memory of 13-year-old Tom Walker from Monmouth, who sadly lost his battle with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) in 2018.
Georgia Davies from the Conveyancing Foundation explained that Tom’s family and friends, and the local community had worked tirelessly since his death to raise funds for a research scholarship in Tom’s name.
She said:
“The research will help to increase our understanding of AML and find new ways to treat this type of aggressive blood cancer. The charity needs funds to keep to its services running but their fundraising was badly hit, as was that of so many other charities were, by COVID.”
Convey Law is one of a growing number of companies raising funds for charity through The Conveyancing Foundation’s Charity Lotto where clients of any legal practice or property company can donate a voluntary £10 at the end of their transaction, giving them a chance to win £500 in a monthly draw.
Managing Director Lloyd Davies explained: “Charitable giving is very important to us as a company and asking staff to nominate charities is a great way for them to benefit from the funds they have helped to raise by enabling them to choose charities close to their hearts.”
Georgia Davies from The Conveyancing Foundation said the Lotto had helped companies raise over £800,000 for their chosen charities over the last decade.
She explained:
“We can help any legal practice or property company raise money through the Charity Lotto. It’s a simple mechanism where clients can donate a voluntary £10 at the end of their transaction, giving them a chance to win £500 in a monthly draw.”
She added:
“I am also delighted to see some of funds raised by Convey Law clients going to such deserving Welsh charities as Boomerang Cardiff and the Velindre Cancer Centre.”
“We are very keen to help others fundraise for their own charities through our Charity Lotto so please do get in touch.”
The Conveyancing Foundation can be contacted for further information on setting up a Charity Lotto at [email protected] or 01633 261794.
