We are absolutely delighted to be able to put our corporate gift budget to our favourite cause – respite care holidays for young carers at Honeypot House in the New Forest. Thanks to our major clients generous gesture we are able to fund a holiday for a Honeypot child – a holiday that may be the first they have ever had!

We support Honeypot all year round by donating all design and artwork for their marketing needs and I sit on a fundraising committee who endeavour to make a dent in the £1million the charity have to raise every year!

We love the idea of corporates forgoing their Christmas fayre gifts to enable charitable donations and hope that others will feel inspired to help Honeypot too.

Honeypot’s regional fundraising manager Karen Betancourt-Jess agrees:

‘What a great idea – and this has cheered up a down-at-heart Honeypot House too. The recent snow led to the cancellation of our annual fundraiser carol concert and will result in a significant loss of revenue. I can’t think of a more appropriate Christmas corporate gift than a respite holiday for one of the UK’s thousands of young carers. We all send thanks to B&V (and their clients) for making that difference!’

Did you know there are more than 175,000 young people (children) looking after family members 24/7? Their duties include cooking, cleaning, shopping, dressing and bathing - frankly everything and usually for a sick lone parent. When we think of children who may struggle to concentrate or even stay awake at school, we rarely consider that they may have been up since 5am to carry out their caring duties or distracted while they are planning what to prepare for supper.

And who will be cooking their Christmas dinner?