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City of London raises £600,000 for children’s Charity...

Posted by Georgina Wilson on 16th October 2015

This week, some of the City’s leading figures at The October Club’s 28th annual fundraising dinner at the Savoy, raised a record breaking £600,000 for the Honeypot Children’s Charity to build a respite centre which will provide support for children who have primary caring responsibilities for a loved one.

The October Club was founded in 1987 when a group of City workers, moved by the plight of Leukaemia sufferers, decided to hold a fundraising dinner. Since then, the Club has held annual dinners and raised over £10 million in support of a number of charities over the past few years, including kick-starting ground breaking research, raising much needed awareness and enabling brave expansion plans.

At this year’s event, over four hundred City professionals spent the evening raising money to fund a transformational project: a new respite centre for Honeypot, a charity which offers both respite breaks and outreach support to young carers and vulnerable children, many of whom would otherwise have nowhere to turn. These generous donations will enable thousands of young carers to have respite from the responsibilities they face at home.

The evening included both a live and silent auction, with prizes such as luxury holidays and money can’t buy experiences, raising in excess of £195,000. Guests were also given the opportunity to pledge to buy new toys and equipment for the respite centre. Over £70,000 was pledged so that the charity can purchase items like new bikes and trampolines for the children, as well as fund one-day trips.

Simmi Woodwal, CEO of Honeypot, said: “We have been so overwhelmed by the support of the October Club. It is a once in a life time opportunity for a small charity like Honeypot to be able to achieve a dream, and we will always be incredibly grateful to the entire committee and all their guests for helping us to make this happen. There are 175,000 young carers in the UK, and we want to be able to extend our support to as many children as possible. With a new respite centre, we are going to be able to start supporting children on a national scale, which is a phenomenal achievement”.

Chairman of The October Club, Mark Pumfrey, said: “We are proud of the City’s ongoing commitment to supporting important causes such as the one promoted by the Honeypot charity. We are especially grateful of the enthusiasm and the commitment of the industry, both longstanding and new supporters, whose work and generosity allows us to continue this tradition of supporting extraordinary people and causes.”