As we say goodbye to 2022, we give thanks to everyone who has generously supported Little Lifts this year. 2022 has been a special year for our charity, as we celebrated our 5th birthday on 23rd November.
It’s also been a busy year for us. We’ve increased our operational activity by 84% compared to 2021, meaning that we’ve taken on more staff and more partnerships to help us nearly double our Box distribution – we gave out a grand total of 4900 Little Lifts Boxes in 2022.
Let us talk you through some of our highlights…
We kick-started the year with our Little Lifts Big Dip, a cold-water challenge. Our amazing participants bravely took to rivers, the sea and even ice baths in their gardens to help raise a whopping £10,000 to support our work.
January saw us welcome a new Platinum Partner to the family, Poultec. We launched the partnership with a packing party, and Poultec’s staff helped to pack over 100 Boxes. Since then, they have hosted various events and taken on fundraising challenges, helping to raise over £24k.
In February, we were so happy to welcome hospitals partnership 7, 8 and 9 to the family. Working with Southend, Basildon and Broomfield hospitals means that we can provide an additional 1500 Little Lifts Boxes to people affected by breast cancer.
To mark World Cancer Day, we invited Jonathan and Lisa from The Pink Ribbon Foundation to join us for the day in our chemotherapy room. They helped us to pack Boxes and spent time chatting to volunteers and beneficiaries. The Pink Ribbon Foundation have been kindly funding our chemotherapy packing room since 2019.
In March, we were very busy behind the scenes building a new website. At the start of the month, we hosted a photoshoot at Little Lifts HQ with 12 wonderful beneficiaries. The day was supported by the make-up team at Jarrold, fashion by John Lewis and hair by Ashley Kay Beauty. Big shout out to Greg Hackett and Rose Kemmy for their time and photography.
On March 6th we headed to Marsh for the evening, where we were treated to tasty treats before being presented with a cheque for £14,000! The funds had been raised in December 2021, when despite covid restrictions and bitterly cold weather, over 100 wonderful volunteers from Marsh supported their Christmas car park.
On March 8th, International Women’s Day, Harriet Inglis become an official Patron of Little Lifts. Since 2019, Harriet has provided us with lots of support and in 2021, thanks to the launch of the Little Lifts Spacemask, we were able to launch our Little Kindness Fund. The Fund means that anyone going through chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatment for breast cancer treatment, living in the UK, can apply for a Box, free of charge, to support them through their treatment.
Harriet says: “I am delighted to be Patron of Little Lifts; a charity so very close to my heart, bringing Boxes of thoughtfulness to those undergoing gruelling breast cancer treatment. Sadly, there was nothing like this for my mother who died from secondary breast cancer aged 48. Reading the grateful comments from Little Lifts Box recipients makes me grin from ear to ear.”
At the end of March, following from a successful 6-month Kick Start programme, we offered George a 12-month Level 2 Apprenticeship – he is now well on his way to becoming Box Guru No.2!
In April, after so many restrictions, we were able to host our first in-person event – a Spring Party! Little Lifts themed cocktails and canapes provided by corporate supporter Florentina meant our guests were treated to a lovely evening, with music from DJ Harps.
We also held our first in-person focus group of the year. 12 women joined us for a delicious afternoon tea at the Assembly House and shared their experience of receiving a Little Lifts Box with us. We held an another in-person focus group later in the year in Ipswich. Focus groups provide us with an important opportunity to understand people’s experiences of breast cancer and its treatment and provide us with vital insights to improve our Boxes.
After lots of hard work from across our Little Lifts Community we were very proud to launch our new website thanks to funding from Sinclair International and National Lottery Awards for All funding. As well as the website, we also launched a brand uplift, all part of strengthening our strategy to increase our impact on those affected by breast cancer.
In May, we were super happy to welcome Frannie to the team. Frannie sits within the Operations and Support Team and manages our Little Kindness Fund.
Later that month, we were finally able to host our annual May Ball, and what a night it was! The evening was hosted at Royal Norwich, and it was kindly sponsored by Sinclair International, raising over £26,000. Over 200 guests enjoyed a canape and fizz reception followed by a delicious meal, auction, raffle, and dancing to live music performed by Ignite. Beneficiaries Terri and Amy spoke bravely and beautifully about their experiences of breast cancer and what their Little Lifts Box meant to them. The evening was dedicated to Becky, a friend and supporter of Little Lifts who died from breast cancer in May 2021.
The month of June began with celebrating Volunteers Week! Our incredible volunteers give up hours of their time to help pack and deliver Boxes, plan and volunteer at events, support us with office admin, social media, marketing, finance, HR… the list really does go on and on. 80% of our volunteers are people who have been directly impacted by our work.
Volunteer Ria says: “I started volunteering for Little Lifts because I wanted to make a difference to women like my mum, who died from breast cancer when I was 16. I wish Little Lifts had been around then, not only so that she could receive a Box, but because Little Lifts is the most wonderful community to be part of.”
At the start of July, we celebrated a community fundraising challenge like no other! Team Sit in a Stream took on a 4-day challenge cycling 320 miles and dipped in 83 rivers across Norfolk. The entire challenge was planned with incredible detail and self-funded. Over £13,000 was raised, we cannot thank them enough for wholeheartedly taking on the challenge with such passion and dedication.
July was the month of epic challenges as Bonita, Chris, Aidan and our very own Frannie took to the skies in early July and jumped from a plane.
A few days later, Team Ultra Lifters took on the Race to the Stones, a whopping 100km run completed within 24 hours. The Ultra Lifters are a group of men who take on physical challenges to raise awareness of men’s mental health whilst at the same time raising funds for Little Lifts after a family member benefited from our Little Kindness Fund. Together they raised over £7,000 with funds raised directly supporting our Little Kindness Fund.
In August, we were happy to welcome Anya to the team as our Brand and Marketing Exec.
In September, we celebrated a group from Perfit Gym who cycled 100 miles cross Norfolk, raising over £3,000 to support our work. We asked Sam his reasons for taking on such a challenge: “Going through breast cancer treatment is such a horrific thing for anyone to go through. Little Lifts have helped someone extremely close to me in more ways than anyone could imagine, when things were extremely hard, they helped bring smiles to her face.”
On 28th September, we were blown away when Jarrold presented us with a cheque for £7,675 after staff selected Little Lifts to be their Charity of the Year in 2021. Helga from Jarrold says: “Each year we look to support local charities and community projects and were proud to support the work of Little Lifts. This included hosting a ‘Big Pink Weekend’ decorating our Beauty Hall pink, with lucky dips, luxury beauty hamper raffles and mini make overs for customers to enjoy.”
October marks Breast Cancer Awareness Month – an important opportunity to educate and raise awareness. In the UK, 1 in 7 women will be affected by breast cancer in their lifetime. There are 35,000 women living with incurable breast cancer, with 31 women a day losing their lives to the disease. 350 men are diagnosed with breast cancer every year.
At the start of October, we welcomed a lovely group from Tesco who travelled far and wide to join us for the day, helping to pack over 100 Boxes. Project Manager Michael said: “After seeing how chemotherapy affected my mum with her breast cancer, it was great to see the work Little Lifts is doing; taking their own experiences to support others.”
On 13th October, to mark Secondary Breast Cancer Awareness Day, we shared the story of our Ambassador, Laura, who lives with incurable breast cancer. Through her experience Laura has set up Secondary Sisters – a space for the secondary cancer community to come together.
Towards the end of October, we hosted a fashion show with the wonderful team at John Lewis in Norwich. It was bold, bright, and empowering. Over 120 guests joined us for the evening to celebrate and support our amazing models who have all been affected by breast cancer. Our models were made to feel like VIPs thanks to the kind, warm, and generous support from the team at John Lewis.
On 1st November, our birthday month, we kicked off the Boobie Bake Off thanks to support from the Assembly House in Norwich. The idea was to inspire people to get baking and to celebrate this special milestone. Our community didn’t disappoint, and we were thrilled to see so many Boobie Bakes!
On 7th November, we celebrated our lovely bunch of Trustees who give up hours to help guide and govern the charity. They also give up their time to deliver Boxes and you will always find at least one of them at a Little Lifts event!
On 18th November, Events Guru Shopie planned another unforgettable evening bringing together our Little Lifts Community to celebrate and reflect on the last five years. A few days later, Corporate Supporter Poultec kindly hosted a special lunch for us followed by an afternoon of mini golf. It was an important opportunity for our small team to spend some time together, celebrating the hard work that we all put in to support people affected by breast cancer.
As the year ends, we had more exciting news at Little Lifts. On 15th December we said farewell to Box Guru, Kay, who is off to have a baby, and we welcomed Lizzie to the team. Kay has been with Little Lifts right from the beginning. Her planning and organisational skills, plus her love of spreadsheets and incredible attention to detail have played a vital role in distributing nearly 10,000 Boxes! Lizzie joins us from a youth charity and recently was the chair of our fundraising committee.
It wouldn’t be Christmas without some mince pies, so we invited our volunteers for some festive fun! Our volunteers help the Little Lifts world go around and we would like to thank every single one of them who give up their time to support us.
Little Lifts has been on the most incredible journey. The idea for our charity was inspired by kindness I received during my breast cancer treatment 7 years ago. It all started with a group of people around my kitchen table and a google search: ‘how to set up a charity’. On 23rd November 2017, I received a call from Oncology Nurse and previous Trustee Tracey, who gave out the first Box, and we both cried. Knowing that someone who was about to start their chemotherapy treatment had received our Box sparked a lot of emotions. We had worked hard to fundraise and had developed a Box full of carefully selected products to provide practical and emotional support to people during their treatment. Little Lifts was finally out there.
Fast forward to 2022 and Little Lifts now works with all 9 NHS hospitals across Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex. The Little Kindness Fund was set up in response to the pandemic and means that anyone living in the UK going through radiotherapy or chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer can apply for a Little Lifts Box, free of charge, on our website. This is something I am immensely proud of. It shows that we listen, adapt, and respond to the needs of the people we support.
We continue to work with a dedicated group of hospital partners, and I thank the enthusiasm of our Little Lifts community; this year our volunteers have contributed 564 hours of Box prep and packing. Thanks also to the individuals, organisations and businesses who donate funds and resources to support our work, and special thanks to our Patron Harriet Inglis, our Platinum Corporate Partners, Sinclair International and Poultec, and Art for Cure for continuing to support our work in Suffolk.
A huge thanks to my wonderful team – Kay, Shopie, Lizzie, Frannie, George and Anya who work non-stop to ensure we achieve our vison. I also give thanks to Ria, Katrina, Mary, Ambassador Laura, Mike, Dan, Karen, Lisa, Karen T and Ruth for providing us with support ranging from bid writing, IT, HR, marketing, and finance.
Finally, I give thanks to our Box recipients, their families, and their friends, who take the time to send us feedback. Hearing from you motivates us every day.
Love, Oa x