Leicester Charity Wins Life Changing Persimmon House

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• Publié par: persimmon-homes
• Nombre de lectures: 24
• Langue: English

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Leicester Charity Wins Life Changing Persimmon House

PR Newswire LEICESTER, England, September 27, 2012

LEICESTER, England,September 27, 2012/PRNewswire/ --

- With Photo

A charity fromLeicesterhas won a brand new £250,000 Persimmon Homes th house as part of the company's 40birthday celebrations.

The Harley Staples Cancer Trust beat off 23 other regional charities to scoop the prize, which the charity says will be life changing. Katherine and Jamie Staples set up The Harley Staples Cancer Trust following the death of their son Harley inNovember 2009. He died from a rare and

aggressive form of leukaemia at the age of eight.

They are aiming to raise £500,000 to build Harley's House - a holiday home to give young cancer sufferers time away from hospitals and treatment. They have already raised £250,000, so winning the house will get them to their target.

The charity collected their prize in front of a 150-strong audience at Persimmon's birthday luncheon at Kensington Roof Gardens.

Jamie Staples said of the win: "We are stunned and speechless. We have achieved our dream and created a true legacy for Harley. Thanks to everyone who has supported us. It's blown us completely away and is a huge achievement.

Other finalists includedYorkshire'sForget Me Not Children's Hospice, Birmingham'sSt Basil's,Scotland'sZac Scott Braveheart Foundation and The Kent Multiple Sclerosis Therapy Centre. Pilgrim's Bandits, a charity supporting injured servicemen, were also finalists and their patron, Para Lance ombardier Ben Parkinson, who is said to be the most injured serviceman ever to survive the battlefield, attended the luncheon. All 23 finalists received a donation of £6,000 from the UK's leading housebuilder. Mike Farley, Persimmon's group chief executive, presented the prizes. He said: "Our whole company has got behind this competition. It's wonderful to th celebrate our 40birthday by giving something back to smaller charities who often miss out on funding. "We have been overwhelmed with the interest in the competition. In stage one we had over 3,000 nominations for the prize and then, when we went down to 24 charities for the public vote, over 130,000 votes were cast. "Katherine and Jamie are worthy winners of our house and I'm delighted to hand it over to them. The charity mounted a fantastic campaign to help them win votes for the competition, with a video, Vote for The Harley Staples Cancer Trust, being the most watched Persimmon charity film on YouTube with nearly 2,000 views. "Kasabian joined the campaign, making an announcement at the Reading festival to urge people to vote and Katherine and Jamie also made an emotional half-time appeal at the King Power Stadium in front of thousands ofLeicester City andBlackpoolfans. Additional support for their campaign has come from the Leicester Mercury newspaper, cricketer Matthew Hoggard,LeicesterCity football manager Nigel Pearson and football legend Steve Walsh. Persimmon was founded in 1972 by current life president Duncan Davison and has grown to be one of the largest and most successful housebuilders in the UK over the last 40 years.

Notes to editors

The full list of 23 runners up who all receive £6,000 are: Hana's Gift - Anglia Anna's Hope -East Midlands Fife Society for the Blind -East Scotland Wales Air Ambulance -East Wales

Emmaus Colchester -Essex Hospice at Home Penrith -Lancaster Friends of Chums -Midlands Cramlington Voluntary Youth Project - North East The Joshua Tree - North West The Rainbow Centre for Children - Severn Valley Pilgrims Bandits - South Coast The Kent Multiple Sclerosis Therapy Centre - South East Deaf-initely Independent -South Midlands YMCA Cornwall - South West Stepping Stones DS - Southern Nightstop Teesside - Teesside Rosie's Rainbow Fund - Thames Valley St Nicholas School - Wessex St Basils -West Midlands The Zak Scott Braveheart Foundation -West Scotland Healing the Wounds -West Wales Life for a Kid -Yorkshire Forget Me Not Children's Hospice -West Yorkshire A picture accompanying this release is available through the PA Photowire. It can be downloaded from http://www.pa-mediapoint.press.net or viewed at http://www.mediapoint.press.net or http://www.prnewswire.co.uk.