Community & Environment

 

The Bridges is at the heart of the community in Sunderland and is involved in socially responsible activities to benefit people of all ages.

The Bridges’ chosen charity for 09/10 is Grace House North East Children’s Hospice Appeal, a local charity which is raising money to build a new children’s hospice here in Sunderland. It is estimated that there are 1000 children in the North East of England who have a life limiting illness and are not expected to reach adulthood. Unfortunately this area has the lowest number of children’s hospice beds available in the United Kingdom. 

Grace House has raised £1.8 million to date and hope to begin building soon. Gentoo have agreed to build the hospice at the lowest possible cost. The charity needs to raise £3.5 million to build, equip and run the hospice for the first year. They rely heavily on public donations as currently there is no long term Government funding available to children’s hospices towards the building costs.