The Lewis Foundation
Celebrating a
Today, the charity delivers around 2,000 gift packs a month to
decade of making an immediate diff erence
A decade on from when Lorraine and Lee Lewis started packing gift packs for cancer patients in their lounge at home, T e Lewis Foundation is celebrating its tenth anniversary in new premises that open up a host of exciting opportunities for the charity. When a company that regularly supports the charity was moving
offi ces, meaning space in Northampton became available, T e Lewis Foundation was able to move into a new home that gives it storage room for more donated items as well as packing areas that make life easier for the volunteers who help make up the gift packs. T e Lewis Foundation was founded in 2016 when Lee’s mum
was receiving cancer treatment and the couple realised how diffi cult it was for seriously ill patients to get the essentials, and the little luxuries, they needed to make their stay in hospital more pleasant. As they set about sourcing donations of goods or money to help
provide gift packs for those being treated on Talbot Butler Ward at Northampton General, news of the charity’s work began to spread. With the support of the community, and generous donations of unwanted, returned, unsold or end-of-line items, T e Lewis Foundation was able to help more patients in more hospitals.
17 hospitals across the Midlands. Lorraine Lewis said: “It’s our tenth anniversary this year and I
am just amazed by how far we have come. It started off with just me and Lee, and then a few volunteers and now, when I look at where we are now, I can’t believe it. “I can’t quite get my head around the fact that companies like
Carlsberg approach us to say we’re going to be their charity of the year, and that we are supported alongside some of the best-known and longest-established charities in Northamptonshire. “So many people support us through volunteering – and companies sign up for sessions as part of
their employees
volunteering time – so much so that our volunteer rota is completely full already for the rest of this year. “And having this new space will mean we can carry on growing
and helping more people. I remember early volunteer sessions at our house where we literally had people in every room. When I found volunteers working in our bathroom, I knew we’d got too big to keep doing it all from home. “Since then, we’ve been using the Elgar Community Centre in
Upton, where we also run the coff ee shop, but even that was getting too small. “T is new space means we can accept more off ers of goods from
businesses – we’ve just been off ered unwanted returns and slow- moving stock from an Amazon fulfi lment centre in Coventry on a regular basis – without having to worry where we’re going to store and pack everything.”
ALL THINGS BUSINESS | 70
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76
