The European Tour Players Foundation has increased its support of Sebastian’s Action Trust by providing a £10,800 contribution towards the running costs of the recently-completed Bluebells Holiday House near Basingstoke.
Sebastian’s Action Trust, established in 2004 in memory of Sebastian Gates, who died at the tragically young age of nine through a rare form of cancer, became the official charity of the 2010 BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Club, receiving a £25,000 grant from the Tour Players Foundation and a further £6000 from fund-raising activities during tournament week.
The Tour Players Foundation – the charitable arm of The European Tour – donated the original grant in 2010 to help create a Sensory Room at Bluebells, a purpose-built holiday home in the village of North Waltham designed to allow families to spend time with children suffering from life-threatening or life-limiting illnesses.
Building work began in July 2010 and was completed in 2011, with the official opening and the first families arriving for holiday in July this year. The aim of the Trust is to alleviate pressures on families at a time of considerable stress.
It was Sebastian’s wish to establish the Trust with a view to building the holiday home and his mother, Jane, has made that aspiration a reality in her role as the Trust’s Director.
With running costs working out at around £2500 per week in the self-catering accommodation, which is free of charge to families, the Tour Players Foundation donated a further £5000 last year and agreed to increase their funding to £10,800 this year to cover one month’s costs.
Mark Roe, Chairman of the Tour Players Foundation, led a delegation of TPF Trustees who were given a conducted tour of Bluebells to view the facilities and speak to some of the families in residence.
He said: “Despite his age, Sebastian understood how his illness had made family time rare – in fact, his parents had to cancel a total of 13 separate holidays during the two and a half years he was ill – and it is incredibly moving to see how much has been achieved since the Trust was established to facilitate the construction and furnishing of Bluebells.
“It has been a privilege to visit the house and see the range of facilities available for the sick children, their parents and siblings, such as the hydrotherapy pool, games room, home cinema, music room and, of course, the sensory room which was constructed with the initial TPF grant. The Trustees are delighted to be able to offer the Trust this additional financial support to assist in their valuable work.”
Jane Gates commented: “We are incredibly grateful to the Tour Players Foundation for their magnificent gesture in agreeing to sponsor a month’s costs of The Bluebells for 2012. We’re so pleased that this continued association follows the sponsorship given previously for our sensory room, which is a much loved feature of our very special house that gives seriously-ill children the opportunity to spend precious time with loved ones.
“As a relatively small charity without any statutory funding we are entirely dependent upon the goodwill of our supporters; without such generosity we would not be able to offer the many forms of meaningful support we have pledged to those families coping with a seriously-ill child or adolescent.”
