Lottery winners build giant gingerbread playhouse for charity
A team of National Lottery millionaires from the South West, including Exeter’s Jenn and Ian Burston, has taken part in a charity challenge to build a giant Gingerbread playhouse for charity.
With a combined wealth of £10 million, the lottery winners gave Santa and his elves a run for their money, when they turned a simple wood cabin into a magical super-sized gingerbread house for the charity.
Bobath Children’s Therapy Centre Wales in Cardiff has previously received over £490K in funding thanks to National Lottery players. The charity now plans to use the Gingerbread inspired cabin as a festive grotto before transforming it into a much needed family meeting room.
Bobath is a centre for children with Cerebral Palsy. The team specialise in physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech and language therapy to help children live more independent and fulfilling lives.
The lottery winners from across the region worked tirelessly over 24 hours to create the Gingerbread house and fill it with gifts and toys for the charity and visitors to enjoy. Using more than 100 litres of paint, 60 paintbrushes, 30 rollers and 40 bespoke wooden shapes, the finished product bought tears of joy to the Bobath team.
Winners helping to create the gingerbread house included Paul and Denise Hardware from Street, Dione and Richard Buss from Bridgwater, Tina and David Chase from Winscombe and Emma and Phil Wildin from Cinderford.
Jenn Burston, from Exeter, who won £3m in 2014, was keen to get involved with the Christmas charity work.
Jenn said: “Charities like Bobath are so important for the young people who rely on them, not only for the physical support they provide, but also for the relationships they build. While my life changed overnight with my win, it’s good to know that other incredibly important local projects just like this are also lottery winners.
“We had a great time working with the project on the gingerbread house and I really hope this gift will help Bobath continue to grow and develop to help many more families in the future. The team here is an inspiration and I can’t think of a more worthy charity for our support.”
Cathy Rogers, Head of Operations for Bobath said: “Space is at a premium for us so when Camelot and the winners offered to build us this fabulous gingerbread house, we jumped at the chance. As well as bringing plenty of festive cheer to the children and our staff throughout December, we will be able to use the house as a space for our families to enjoy all year round.
“Lottery funding has been essential to Bobath’s success and we are extremely grateful for this additional support which will make a real difference to the charity going forward.”
Bobath is not the only project to benefit. Three other unique gingerbread houses have been created by National Lottery winners and given to projects in Liverpool (Zoe’s Place Baby Hospice), Essex (Hamelin Trust’s Roots and Shoots project in Rochford) and Stafford (Staffordshire Wildlife Trust). More than 60 National Lottery winners have been involved in donating thousands of pounds in materials and gifts for the charities.
Bobath has previously benefitted from National Lottery funding and nine grants totalling £493,937 from the Big Lottery Fund to increase and improve the facilities of the therapy centre, effectively helping double the space of the charity.
The project is just one of thousands of projects in Wales to benefit from National Lottery funding. Since the launch of The National Lottery, £1.6 billion has been shared with 46,000 projects, covering a diverse range of sectors from arts, heritage, sport, education, environment, health and charity.
