Charity Update: Siblings United

Wednesday 5th February 2025

Over the last year Bailey Cook, with the generous support of our staff, clients and connections, has raised over £4,000 for Siblings United. Siblings United provides support for the brothers and sisters of children who are undergoing treatment for cancer. They make a real difference to children's lives at a difficult time.

We asked Phil Bolt, founder and trustee of the charity, to give us an update on their work:

"Firstly I notice your Just Giving page is now sitting at over £4,000, which is absolutely incredible. We will be able to do so much with that, thank you so very much.

We work very closely with Young Lives vs Cancer, their primary focus is on the child in treatment and their parents. They do not have the priority of supporting siblings which is where we come in. We are always looking for opportunities how to get involved with their projects. Last July we supported their family and siblings day out when they organised a boat trip around Bristol harbour. Our contribution was to provide lunch for the families along with gift bags for all the children which were age related and contained such items as Lego, moulding clay, dreamcatchers and sweets. The feedback we received from YLvsC care workers was that it was very well received. We have since been in conversations with them to be involved with more and hopefully take more of a lead financing a complete event. This is not just restricted to Bristol now as it has been, we are also in touch with RUH Bath about supporting them also.

Our everyday offering of gifts and experiences to children saw us receive approximately 30 separate family referrals which in turn meant we sent gifts to over 50 children. The latest gift we have sent just this week is to a young person mad about the NBA in the States. He wanted something associated with his favourite players so we have sourced a signed and authenticated official merchandise figurine of his favourite NBA star.

Amongst other gifts we have sent include family passes to Noah’s Ark Zoo farm, Go Pro camera, audio book players, lots and lots of Lego, puppets, dolls, fishing equipment, numerous gift cards for shopping which are popular amongst older children and even items for older children’s room makeovers! Each child has a personal input to their gift and we do our absolute best to deliver that gift directly to their home address. Each gift is different and we can tell it’s a very personal thing.

All the conversations we’ve had with YLvsC confirm our work is always well received and appreciated, we do also hear back from some families once we’ve informed them their gift is on the way and again they are always complimentary and grateful for the support. We are supporting a section of the child cancer community that has been under supported for so long. As part of our referral process we do ask how the family think our gift will be helpful, and overwhelmingly we hear stories of how families have been separated due to travel commitments, treatments, etc, so our gesture is very gratefully received.

This recent Christmas we have increased the amount of gifts we donated to Bristol Children’s Hospital, split across three different wards who mainly focus on oncology patients. For this coming Christmas, even though it’s far away, we are planning to offer the same range of gifts and also to RUH Bath. Fundraising of the level provided by Bailey Cook allows us to consider these options.

For the rest of the coming year we will be continuing our standard gift referral offerings and will be looking for ways to support more days out for families and support siblings days arranged by the hospitals as these are so important to inform the siblings of what and where their brother or sister is in treatment for. This reduces the isolation and confusion they often experience and gives them opportunities to talk about their own feelings.

Thank you Bailey Cook and everyone involved in supporting our very special charity, it’s very personal to us and we are incredibly grateful."

Thank you to everyone who has donated to this worthy cause. If you would like to support Siblings United you can learn more about them by clicking here and you can donate by visiting our Just Giving page.